NEWS ROUNDUP
Ranchers fight Army over land Herman Moltrer returned from Vietnam to be a cattle rancher on the broad shortgrass prairie that stretches as far as the eye can see in southern Colorado. The rugged work earned him a living and a little something extra for his soul, but now he fears he may have to sell his land, at someone else's price. The U.S. Army wants 418,000 acres of private ranch land, tripling the size of its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, a training site considered suitable — some would say essential — for preparing American warriors to do battle in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The 1,000-square-mile facility would be 15 times the size of Washington. Several dozen ranchers and members of 15 county commissions that voted to oppose the project find themselves pitted against the Pentagon and Colorado business interests in a struggle over property rights, personal heritage and the contested priorities of national security. Bob Hill, a rancher forced to sell his land to the Army 25 years ago, said caustically, "I find the city people are really patriotic with our property."....
Plague blamed for biologist's death An Arizona-based wildlife biologist likely died of the plague, officials from Grand Canyon National Park announced on Friday. Autopsy reports for Eric York, a 37-year-old wildlife biologist for the National Park Service, showed that he had plague in his body. Officials said that 49 of York's coworkers and others who came within a 6-foot diameter of him were placed on antibiotics. As of Wednesday, they were still on medication, but none had become ill or displayed symptoms, officials said. Officials said York was most likely exposed to the plague when he performed an autopsy on a mountain lion that had been infected and most likely killed by it. York was the only person to come in contact with the dead mountain lion, according to officials....
Tracing the root of a fire takes time It's hard to comprehend how a small spark can set in motion a firestorm that destroys vast amounts of property and takes human lives. When it happens, people like Gary Eidsmoe are the ones charged with finding out where that spark originated – and why. Normally, when just one fire is involved, investigators systematically search for answers from the beginning. On days like Oct. 21 and 22, when fires were breaking out all over San Diego County, thorough examinations have to wait. Eidsmoe, 54, retired from Cal Fire at the end of last year. He had been a fire investigator for 17 years. But he's still on call and was sent to Potrero on Oct. 21 to find the cause of the Harris fire. Eidsmoe also helped with investigations of the Poomacha blaze near Palomar Mountain and a number of fires on Camp Pendleton. Cal Fire has not officially announced the causes of any of last month's fires. Eidsmoe said it is his understanding that most were caused by power lines arcing or falling down in high winds, or transformers exploding....
Ranch easements culled The conservation easements ranchers use to cut taxes and protect land are being scrutinized by the Colorado Division of Real Estate, Colorado Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service because of allegedly inflated appraisals. Of the more than 400 tax returns involving conservation easements that the IRS is investigating nationwide, 290 are in Colorado. About 60 of those were initiated at the request of the Colorado Department of Revenue. A conservation easement is a permanent restriction on some land uses, typically development and subdivision of a property. Ranchers and farmers establish conservation easements on their properties through land trusts - nonprofit organizations that work to conserve land. In exchange for putting land into an easement, owners get tax deductions. When there are abuses, as with inflated appraisals, the government gets shorted on taxes. "There can't be abuse if the appraisal isn't overvalued," said Division of Real Estate director Erin Toll. "We're in danger of losing the whole (conservation easement) program if we don't step up enforcements."....
Criminal Probe Opened in Bay Oil Spill Coast Guard investigators on Sunday were trying to determine whether a cargo ship's speed and possible communication problems led to a collision that resulted in the San Francisco Bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades. A preliminary Coast Guard investigation found that human error, not mechanical failure, caused the ship to sideswipe a support on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the incident. "One of the things we are looking at, as with any investigation with the weather conditions we saw—specifically heavy fog—would be what speed was the ship traveling and was that appropriate given the visibility at the time," Coast Guard Cmdr. Brendan McPherson said Sunday. The Cosco Busan's collision with the bridge Wednesday left a gash nearly 100 feet long on the side of the 926-foot vessel and ruptured two of the vessel's fuel tanks, causing about 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel to leak into the bay....
Feds: Fire retardant use is better than burning Federal and state agencies dropped 31.3 million gallons of fire retardant on U.S. wildfires last year, coating 26,600 acres of burning forest with bright red substance that is mostly water laced with a somewhat toxic chemical brew. Just how toxic has been the subject of a federal review of the environmental impact of fire retardants dropped from the air. Despite retardant’s fertilizer-based chemicals, the U.S. Forest Service disclosed last month that it will continue to drop the substance to slow down imminent flames and assist on-the-ground wildfire defense. The U.S. Forest Service released an environmental assessment in October that analyzed the impacts of fire retardant on soils, air quality, aquatic environments, alpine ecosystems, cultural artifacts and public health. After a year’s worth of general analysis on 193 million acres of land, the Forest Service declared that fire retardant poses no significant impact to natural and human environments — except for bodies of water. In most cases, eliminating the use of retardant would likely increase the severity of a fire, which would in turn worsen the fire’s environmental impact, the study concluded....
Environmentalists oppose ruling on endangered hawk species A bird of prey found along North America's northern West Coast warrants protection as an endangered species in Canada but not in Alaska, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided Thursday. Environmental groups that sued the agency for protections for the Queen Charlotte goshawk called the decision bad science and a bad interpretation of federal law and vowed to return to court to have Alaska birds protected. "We think it's illegal, and organizationally, when we think things are illegal, we go to court and try to get a judge to agree with us," said Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity. The quest to list the birds under the Endangered Species Act has been going on since 1994. The Fish and Wildlife Service's latest response came after its previous determination denying protections was rejected in court. Queen Charlotte goshawks are one of three subspecies that inhabit the Northern hemisphere, according to the listing petition. They're found from Washington's Olympic Peninsula to southeast Alaska south of Juneau....
Scientists strive to get wildfires' number After a day wrestling with the mysteries of fire, Francis Fujioka turned on the TV and watched Southern California burn into the night. A news feed showed a line of fire climbing a hillside. It was small, moving slowly, not a threat for the moment. But Fujioka saw what viewers missed: The flames were bent in a way that suggested a tiny weather pattern had formed within the fire, and that would influence what happened next. "I'm watching this and I'm thinking to myself, 'There's no way in my career -- what's left of it -- that I'm ever going to be able to model that on a computer,' " said Fujioka, 61, a research meteorologist at the U.S. Forest Service's Fire Laboratory in Riverside. "Predicting a fire's growth is really a difficult business." For nearly three decades, Fujioka has fought fire not with water but with mathematics in an attempt to predict what is inherently unpredictable. Weather, fuel and topography are the ingredients of wildfires like the ones that savaged Southern California recently. The study of the myriad ways they influence each other is an inexact science. A fire's predicted path of destruction using today's forecasting tools often has little in common with what actually burns....
Interior’s rules tread close to trampling free press Those of us in the news media are more than a bit concerned over proposed rules that could restrict photography — both still and video — on public lands. The Society of Professional Journalists and 18 other journalism organizations signed a letter this month opposing the new rules being drafted by the U.S. Department of Interior. The federal agency says it is simply codifying agency rules that are already in place. These rules include a fee schedule for commercial crews that want to film in our national parks and guidelines for what can be filmed by others and where. What prompted the letter of protest from journalists was the possibility that the newly codified agency rules would — in effect — make the government the judge of what can be seen. If that happens, park rangers could assume the role of editor. We get all nervous when government becomes the arbiter of what can and cannot be covered or documented, especially on vast tracts of public lands....Welcome to the regulated community. The media has promoted the regulation of others, or stood silently by while others were regulated out of business. I hope you like the taste of what others have choked on.
Colo. gas lease fetches record price The state government made $2.6 million in a couple of minutes Thursday at an auction of natural-gas drilling rights. Someone paid $26,000 an acre for the right to drill 200 acres north of Interstate 70, near Parachute, more than triple the previous record for a federal gas lease in Colorado. The record-breaking bid comes during a heated debate about how to divide the state's oil and gas revenues, and whether some places should be off limits to drilling. The 200 acres is close to the Naval Oil Shale Reserve, better known as the Roan Plateau. Although the area was first set aside for oil shale, it has a large deposit of natural gas, and it has become the main battleground between gas companies and their opponents in the environmental and wildlife communities....
Horse center to reopen after testing finds no salmonella The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's wild horse center in Palomino Valley plans to reopen Tuesday, nearly seven weeks after salmonella sickened horses at the facility. "The public will be able to come in and again use the facility," BLM official JoLynn Worley said Thursday. "We will be back in business for bringing in horses and shipping them out." Since early September, when 983 horses from the Jackson Mountains were brought to the center, 178 animals have died or were euthanized, the BLM said. Nineteen were euthanized for other conditions, including old injuries. On Sept. 26, the center voluntarily closed after officials learned salmonella was found in some horses....
Groups: Protect prairie dog The environmental group Forest Guardians cites escalating threats to the black-tailed prairie dog in a new petition asking the federal government to protect the animal under the Endangered Species Act. Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance is a partner in the petition filed in August with the Department of the Interior. “The black-tailed prairie dog population has vanished in 98 percent of its native range,” said Erik Molvar of Biodiversity. “In its remaining areas, it’s threatened not only by this nonnative plague, but also by these recurring prairie dog poisoning efforts that are pushing the animal closer to the brink of extinction.” The new petition claims the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred in its 2004 decision that the animal did not warrant federal protection. Petitioners also state that the black-tailed prairie dog warrants a fresh look due to increased threats from poisoning by humans and habitat destruction, as well as the ongoing threats of shooting and plague....
Wolf plan divides ranchers Ranchers in some areas of the state have differing views of whether Wyoming's proposed new wolf plan is good or bad news for their business. Some ranchers in the Upper Green River Valley area -- where wolves would receive no protection under the current draft plan -- would rather see their lands incorporated into a proposed trophy game zone for wolves. That's because with trophy game status, the ranchers would have help with wolf control and would be reimbursed for livestock losses, actions that would not happen outside the trophy game zone. But around Cody, some ranchers within the proposed trophy game area would rather see so-called predator status for wolves there, so they could have greater flexibility in controlling problem wolves. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, for its part, says the draft plan is a balance between the two interests. The state Game and Fish Commission is expected to vote on the state's wolf plan when it meets in Thermopolis Thursday and Friday. The plan would take effect once wolves are removed from federal protection....
Hunting group intervenes in grizzly suit A federal judge has allowed a hunting group to intervene in a lawsuit in which conservation organizations are challenging a federal move to strip grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone area of Endangered Species Act protections. U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Idaho on Wednesday granted a request from Safari Club International and Safari Club International Foundation to participate in the lawsuit as friends of the court. Grizzly bears were removed from Endangered Species Act protection last spring. Seven conservation groups sued over the grizzly delisting in June. They say grizzly bears still face threats from limited habitat, poor genetic diversity, and declining food sources. Safari Club officials said they want to prevent the grizzly bear from regaining protection under the Endangered Species Act. They said federal protection for the bear "deprives the states of their management authority," blocks states from preventing declines in deer, elk and moose populations and would prevent sustainable bear hunting in the future....
Plague outbreak delays ferret transplant Plans to reintroduce the endangered black-footed ferret to the Thunder Basin National Grassland are on hold following a severe plague outbreak in prairie dogs this summer. Prairie dogs are the primary food source for the black-footed ferret. Only about 3,000 acres of active colonies of the rodent remain of the area marked for ferret reintroduction, said Misty Hays, deputy district ranger for the Douglas U.S. Forest Service office. The delay could be as little as two years, depending on the animals’ rebound, Hays said. Plans had called for ferret transplants this fall. Wyoming Game and Fish Department nongame mammal biologist Martin Grenier is participating in the multi-agency ferret reintroduction with the Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He said two years may be optimistic, and reintroduction could be more than several years down the road. “It may be longer than that,” Grenier said. “We really don’t know how long it’s going to take for populations to bounce back to the point they’ll support ferrets.”....
Polar bears in danger? Is this some kind of joke? First there came the computer-generated polar bear in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth; then that heartrending photo, syndicated everywhere, of the bears apparently stranded on a melting ice floe; then the story of those four polar bears drowned by global warming (actually, they’d perished in a storm). Now, in a new cinema release called Earth – a magnificent, feature-length nature documentary from the makers of the BBC’s Planet Earth series – comes the most sob-inducing “evidence” of all: a poor male polar bear filmed starving to death as a result, the quaveringly emotional Patrick Stewart voiceover suggests, of global warming. Never mind that what actually happens is that the bear stupidly has a go at a colony of walruses and ends up being gored to death. Having been up to the bears’ habitat in Svalbard, I do have a certain amount of sympathy with these concerns. To claim, however, that they are facing imminent doom is stretching the truth. In 1950, let us not forget, there were about 5,000 polar bears. Now there are 25,000. No wonder Greenpeace had trouble getting polar bears placed on the endangered species list. A fivefold population increase isn’t exactly a catastrophic decline....
When 'voluntary' means 'mandatory' When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its new National Animal Identification System in 2005, it was scheduled to become mandatory in three phases: property registration by 2007; animal identification and registration by 2008; and reporting – within 24 hours – of animal movement off the registered property by 2009. Even under the best of circumstances, it was an impossible goal. The idea of assigning a seven-digit number to every property in the nation that houses even a single chicken, horse, cow, goat, sheep, or any one of 29 species of animals is simply unrealistic, especially if the owners of the property don't want their property registered in a government database. Even more ridiculous is the idea of tagging each of these hundreds of millions of animals with a radio frequency identification device containing a unique 15-digit number. And perhaps the height of unrealistic expectations was that the owners of these registered and tagged animals would report to the government every time a registered animal was moved from the registered property – within 24 hours. The USDA anticipated big fines for non-compliance as a way to enforce the "mandatory."....
Texas may be home to new foot-and-mouth disease research lab For a half-century, the nation's only experiments on the world's most devastating livestock virus have occurred on this clandestine government-run island, separated from the mainland by more than a mile of choppy water. Now foot-and-mouth disease may be about to come ashore. Texas and five other states are competing to win a mammoth biodefense facility – a new $500 million federal research center that would house foot-and-mouth and other highly infectious animal diseases. The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility is intended to replace the Plum Island labs, which homeland security officials say are outdated, inadequate and difficult to secure. The location will be chosen next fall. But bringing foot-and-mouth research onto the mainland – a move that requires an act of Congress – has posed a quandary for ranchers and farmers, who want the best possible research but fear a U.S. epidemic....
E. coli loophole cited in recalls One federal inspector calls it the "E. coli loophole." Another says, "Nobody would buy it if they knew." The officials are referring to the little-discussed fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed it acceptable for meat companies to cook and sell meat on which E. coli, a bacterium that can sicken and even kill humans, is found during processing. The "E. coli loophole" affects millions of pounds of beef each year that tests positive for the presence of E. coli O157:H7, a particularly virulent strain of the bacterium. The agency allows companies to put this E. coli-positive meat in a special category -- "cook only." Cooking the meat, the USDA and producers say, destroys the bacteria and makes it safe to eat as precooked hamburgers, meat loaf, crumbled taco meat and other products. But some USDA inspectors say the "cook only" practice means that higher-than-appropriate levels of E. coli are tolerated in packing plants, raising the chance that clean meat will become contaminated. They say the "cook only" practice is part of the reason for this year's sudden rise in incidents of E. coli contamination....
Rancher auctions off his unique collection Each of Hank Vaskey's 40 antique saddles on the auction block Saturday carried not only cowboys and ranchers but stories generated from years of riding on the high plains of Montana over the past 120 years. "It was terrible, really hard to see them go," Vaskey, 76, said after the auction Saturday. "But I kept my favorite, an old Cogshall that was made in Miles City. I also kept my dad's saddle." Vaskey, a retired rancher from the Raynesford area, watched as some of the hundreds of live bidders and 30 online bidders purchased the saddles during a farm and ranch equipment auction Saturday on the Greg Larson property outside of Vaughn. Bidders from Pennsylvania, Minnesota, North Dakota and Colorado came specifically for the saddle auction, said officials from Burow's Auction Service. A well-worn E.G. Burrows saddle possibly made in the 1920s or 30s brought back memories of life on the ranch for East Helena resident Harley Ziesman. Burrows, one of the country's premier saddle makers from Basin, Wyo., who's now deceased, made two for Ziesman's father and grandfather in the 1930s....
Monday, November 12, 2007
FLE
Intel Official: Say Goodbye to Privacy A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy. Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information. Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act. Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S. The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering....
U.S. simulates 'dirty bomb' attacks on Phoenix, Portland A dirty bomb explodes in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific. A few hours later, two more dirty bombs detonate, this time on the continental United States. One bomb goes off at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, killing an unknown number of people and spreading radiation throughout the airport. Almost simultaneously, a dirty bomb goes off in Portland, Ore., detonated on the Steel Bridge, one of the city's main arteries across the Willamette River to the downtown area. Within minutes, the news media broadcast these disasters to the world. Is the U.S. facing another 9/11, this time with dirty bombs set off by another wave of Islamic terrorists? How many more dirty bombs are set to go off, and where? As much as the scenario may sound like the screenplay of a Hollywood thriller, these terrorists events were being simulated as part of a national training exercise conducted by NORAD and USNORTHCOM in October. Named Vigilant Shield 2008, or VS08, the exercise was also a "top officials exercise," code-named TOPOFF4....
Border Fence Could Cut Through Backyards Founded 240 years ago, this sleepy Texas town along the Rio Grande has outlasted the Spanish, then the Mexicans and then the short-lived independent Republic of Texas. But it may not survive the U.S. government's effort to secure the Mexican border with a steel fence. A map obtained by The Associated Press shows that the double- or triple-layer fence may be built as much as two miles from the river on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, leaving parts of Granjeno and other nearby communities in a potential no-man's-land between the barrier and the water's edge. Based on the map and what the residents have been told, the fence could run straight through houses and backyards. Some fear it could also cut farmers off from prime farmland close to the water. "I don't sleep right because I'm worried," said Daniel Garza, a 74- year-old retiree born and raised in Granjeno. Garza said federal agents told him that the gray brick house he built just five years ago and shares with his 72-year-old wife is squarely in the fence's path. "No matter what they offer, I don't want to move, I don't want to leave,"....
Intel Official: Say Goodbye to Privacy A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy. Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information. Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act. Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S. The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil, to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering....
U.S. simulates 'dirty bomb' attacks on Phoenix, Portland A dirty bomb explodes in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific. A few hours later, two more dirty bombs detonate, this time on the continental United States. One bomb goes off at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, killing an unknown number of people and spreading radiation throughout the airport. Almost simultaneously, a dirty bomb goes off in Portland, Ore., detonated on the Steel Bridge, one of the city's main arteries across the Willamette River to the downtown area. Within minutes, the news media broadcast these disasters to the world. Is the U.S. facing another 9/11, this time with dirty bombs set off by another wave of Islamic terrorists? How many more dirty bombs are set to go off, and where? As much as the scenario may sound like the screenplay of a Hollywood thriller, these terrorists events were being simulated as part of a national training exercise conducted by NORAD and USNORTHCOM in October. Named Vigilant Shield 2008, or VS08, the exercise was also a "top officials exercise," code-named TOPOFF4....
Border Fence Could Cut Through Backyards Founded 240 years ago, this sleepy Texas town along the Rio Grande has outlasted the Spanish, then the Mexicans and then the short-lived independent Republic of Texas. But it may not survive the U.S. government's effort to secure the Mexican border with a steel fence. A map obtained by The Associated Press shows that the double- or triple-layer fence may be built as much as two miles from the river on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, leaving parts of Granjeno and other nearby communities in a potential no-man's-land between the barrier and the water's edge. Based on the map and what the residents have been told, the fence could run straight through houses and backyards. Some fear it could also cut farmers off from prime farmland close to the water. "I don't sleep right because I'm worried," said Daniel Garza, a 74- year-old retiree born and raised in Granjeno. Garza said federal agents told him that the gray brick house he built just five years ago and shares with his 72-year-old wife is squarely in the fence's path. "No matter what they offer, I don't want to move, I don't want to leave,"....
Sunday, November 11, 2007
’Tis the season for camo and ammo
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
If big-game hunting and all that goes with it offends you, I will understand if you want to turn the page. It’s not for everybody.
On the other hand, there is a world full of bodies that thrive on the hunt with every intent for the kill and none of their reasons are the same.
The fall months bring out the masses of hunters seeking trophy antelope, deer and elk, and the world turns camouflage.
Drivers dressed in camo, the highways are covered up with trucks loaded down with 4-wheelers, coolers and camping gear. Some of them even bring a gun.
At a grocery store in a small town on the perimeter of hunting land, a guy leaving the store made a comment that he had been going to go in and buy a loaf of bread. He indicated there were so many hunters inside he figured it would be quicker to just go home and make biscuits.
Masses of businesses depend on the hunting industry for a major boost to their economy. Small communities in hunting country have signs everywhere offering free chili suppers and free hunter breakfasts.
One guy reported it cost him about $200 in gas to go around to all the little towns and eat their food. He isn’t a hunter, just an eater.
Posted signs read 45 miles to the next ammo store and if they don t say “ammo,” they say “beer.”
I come from a long line of meat hunters who, indeed, hunted, but foremost for family sustenance and somewhat of a right of passage to manhood for the growing boys in the bunch.
The locals simply gear up, go kill something, bring it home, skin it out, cut it up and know they have winter meat in the freezer.
While they have plenty of fun doing it, as witnessed by the masses gathered around the skinning tree, it is more a way of life than an epiphany.
When the fall weather turns cool, the primal instinct to hunt and kill a little winter meat rises like sap in a maple tree. It is one of the few things that bring out the same stalk, kill and drag-it-home instinct in men the same as it did in the days they lived in caves.
Die-hard hunters look offended if you ask them, “Are you going hunting this year?” In their minds, it is a national holiday. Hunting season is marked on the calendar first and before anything else for the year. Of course, they are going hunting. Any more silly questions?
I’ve known men to quit their job so they could go hunting. Another who would injure himself just enough to qualify for some paid time off which, of course, he used to go hunting. Neanderthal instincts are not buried very deep in most men.
My favorite story from this year’s hunt was when my daughter telephoned via cell phone from the hunting grounds to announce success. She then emailed me a picture, again via cell phone, of the prize animal with the hunter and his bow.
Nothing is safe from technology.
Visit Julie at her Web site at www.julie-carter.com
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy
By Julie Carter
If big-game hunting and all that goes with it offends you, I will understand if you want to turn the page. It’s not for everybody.
On the other hand, there is a world full of bodies that thrive on the hunt with every intent for the kill and none of their reasons are the same.
The fall months bring out the masses of hunters seeking trophy antelope, deer and elk, and the world turns camouflage.
Drivers dressed in camo, the highways are covered up with trucks loaded down with 4-wheelers, coolers and camping gear. Some of them even bring a gun.
At a grocery store in a small town on the perimeter of hunting land, a guy leaving the store made a comment that he had been going to go in and buy a loaf of bread. He indicated there were so many hunters inside he figured it would be quicker to just go home and make biscuits.
Masses of businesses depend on the hunting industry for a major boost to their economy. Small communities in hunting country have signs everywhere offering free chili suppers and free hunter breakfasts.
One guy reported it cost him about $200 in gas to go around to all the little towns and eat their food. He isn’t a hunter, just an eater.
Posted signs read 45 miles to the next ammo store and if they don t say “ammo,” they say “beer.”
I come from a long line of meat hunters who, indeed, hunted, but foremost for family sustenance and somewhat of a right of passage to manhood for the growing boys in the bunch.
The locals simply gear up, go kill something, bring it home, skin it out, cut it up and know they have winter meat in the freezer.
While they have plenty of fun doing it, as witnessed by the masses gathered around the skinning tree, it is more a way of life than an epiphany.
When the fall weather turns cool, the primal instinct to hunt and kill a little winter meat rises like sap in a maple tree. It is one of the few things that bring out the same stalk, kill and drag-it-home instinct in men the same as it did in the days they lived in caves.
Die-hard hunters look offended if you ask them, “Are you going hunting this year?” In their minds, it is a national holiday. Hunting season is marked on the calendar first and before anything else for the year. Of course, they are going hunting. Any more silly questions?
I’ve known men to quit their job so they could go hunting. Another who would injure himself just enough to qualify for some paid time off which, of course, he used to go hunting. Neanderthal instincts are not buried very deep in most men.
My favorite story from this year’s hunt was when my daughter telephoned via cell phone from the hunting grounds to announce success. She then emailed me a picture, again via cell phone, of the prize animal with the hunter and his bow.
Nothing is safe from technology.
Visit Julie at her Web site at www.julie-carter.com
OPINION/COMMENTARY
Damn Those Humans!
Don't you just hate it when people live where they want to live? I mean, who do they think they are? The Washington Post, in its Wednesday morning story on the wildfires sweeping Southern California, barely veils its wonderment, if not contempt, for people who persist in making free choices about the location of their homes. The writers, Karl Vick and Sonya Geis, can't seem to resist making the unfolding disaster a socio-environmental "teaching moment." The epic blazes, we learn in the article's lead, are "stoked" not merely by wind, heat and dryness, but by "the human impulse to live just a little farther out." Yes, it seems that people are still choosing to leave the more densely populated city cores to find cheaper housing and, dare we say it, more room out on - as the Post calls it, "the suburban frontier." Then, to tie it all together, the Post article quotes someone named Ray Rasker of Headwaters Economics, who is involved with "a study showing that 50 to 95 percent of (U.S.) Forest Service firefighting costs went to protect private property" (emphasis added). Private property! Who knew? Doesn't that just encourage those damn humans? Think of it. They dream of living somewhere "farther out" and somehow they presume in their dreams that some reasonable effort may be made to protect their private property. Why, if this keeps up, people who live on the edge of Washington, D.C.'s sprawling Rock Creek Park will expect firemen to try and save their apartments and houses if a fire breaks out in those lovely woods....
A Better Way to Go Green
Next month, the world will get a chance to enjoy some brazen hypocrisy. Former Vice President Al Gore will speak in Oslo as he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. No doubt he’ll offer plenty of hot rhetoric about the dangers of global warming, and warn listeners they need to act -- right now -- to save our fragile planet. But how will Gore get to Norway? Maybe he’ll take a wind-powered Clipper ship and then climb aboard a dogsled to go the rest of the way. But if that’s the case, he’d better leave immediately. No, it’s far more likely he’ll fly in, bringing a sizable entourage of family, friends, security officers and so forth. Gore, you see, leaves a large “carbon footprint” wherever he goes, even when he stays home. According to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, his Nashville house uses more electricity in a month than the average American home uses in a year. Still, Gore would be doing all of us a favor if, instead of jetting off to Europe, he’d stay home and read Bjorn Lomborg’s new book “Cool It,” the skeptical environmentalist’s guide to global warming. Lomborg systematically dismantles Gore’s argument that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the biggest threat facing mankind, and that humanity must focus all our attention on fighting it....
Congress Continues to Feed Overstuffed Park Service
On Wednesday, members of the House Natural Resources Committee will vote on the "America's Historical and Natural Legacy Study Act" (H.R. 3998), a massive bill that would direct the National Park Service to "study" the prospects of adding multiple new properties to its already expansive fiefdom. Included in the bill is the "Mississippi River Study Act" which would set the wheels in motion for creating a new national trail along the entire Mississippi River. Last year, I had the honor of testifying before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands on behalf of The National Center for Public Policy Research. Below is an excerpt: The Mississippi River Trail Study Act… carries significant, negative property rights implications for landowners in the path and vicinity of the proposed trail - whether the trail be the river itself or an adjacent, land-based trail. Its timing is bad because it would drain resources from an agency that is already stretched well beyond its capacity. It also comes at a time when Americans across the nation are demanding that government use of eminent domain power be strictly curtailed. A national scenic or historic trail the entire length of the Mississippi River would bring a new threat of eminent domain to property owners in as many as ten states. In addition to laying the groundwork for a national trail along the Mississippi River, H.R. 3998 would direct the Park Service to consider expanding two existing national historic sites, one existing national trail, and a huge national recreation area dubbed "the Rim of the Valley Corridor" in California. Also included in the bill are four, yet-to-be-classified, new Park Service units and another national trail that would wind through Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California....
Green Around the Gills
"We have turned out the lights in the studio," NBC's Bob Costas told viewers of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, "to kick off a week that will include more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues." Discerning viewers with eyes keen enough to pierce the sanctimonious glare of Costas' candlelit silhouette may have noticed that the stadium's klieg lights still shone brightly. On a typical game day, a large football stadium burns about 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 35,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The cars driving to the game spew about 200 metric tons of CO2 (and that assumes nobody's driving SUVs or RVs, which is like assuming tailgaters are eating only sushi). There's also the electricity used to broadcast the game and to watch it. But thank goodness Costas turned off the studio lights for a minute or two. NBC's "Green Week" continued apace (well after this writing). Morbidly obese contestants on "The Biggest Loser" lugged piles of recyclable cans up ramps and into enormous collection bins. Of course, the cans were delivered to the stunt by diesel truck. So a lot of energy - and sweat! - that could have been used toward fermenting homebrew tofu, or whatever energy is supposed to be used for, was wasted on viewer schadenfreude. The winners of the challenge each received a hybrid SUV. Alas, one of the winners didn't own a car to begin with, so the net result was one more car on the road and a little more CO2 in the air. On "Days of Our Lives," a fictional couple had a fictionally "green" wedding....
Damn Those Humans!
Don't you just hate it when people live where they want to live? I mean, who do they think they are? The Washington Post, in its Wednesday morning story on the wildfires sweeping Southern California, barely veils its wonderment, if not contempt, for people who persist in making free choices about the location of their homes. The writers, Karl Vick and Sonya Geis, can't seem to resist making the unfolding disaster a socio-environmental "teaching moment." The epic blazes, we learn in the article's lead, are "stoked" not merely by wind, heat and dryness, but by "the human impulse to live just a little farther out." Yes, it seems that people are still choosing to leave the more densely populated city cores to find cheaper housing and, dare we say it, more room out on - as the Post calls it, "the suburban frontier." Then, to tie it all together, the Post article quotes someone named Ray Rasker of Headwaters Economics, who is involved with "a study showing that 50 to 95 percent of (U.S.) Forest Service firefighting costs went to protect private property" (emphasis added). Private property! Who knew? Doesn't that just encourage those damn humans? Think of it. They dream of living somewhere "farther out" and somehow they presume in their dreams that some reasonable effort may be made to protect their private property. Why, if this keeps up, people who live on the edge of Washington, D.C.'s sprawling Rock Creek Park will expect firemen to try and save their apartments and houses if a fire breaks out in those lovely woods....
A Better Way to Go Green
Next month, the world will get a chance to enjoy some brazen hypocrisy. Former Vice President Al Gore will speak in Oslo as he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. No doubt he’ll offer plenty of hot rhetoric about the dangers of global warming, and warn listeners they need to act -- right now -- to save our fragile planet. But how will Gore get to Norway? Maybe he’ll take a wind-powered Clipper ship and then climb aboard a dogsled to go the rest of the way. But if that’s the case, he’d better leave immediately. No, it’s far more likely he’ll fly in, bringing a sizable entourage of family, friends, security officers and so forth. Gore, you see, leaves a large “carbon footprint” wherever he goes, even when he stays home. According to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, his Nashville house uses more electricity in a month than the average American home uses in a year. Still, Gore would be doing all of us a favor if, instead of jetting off to Europe, he’d stay home and read Bjorn Lomborg’s new book “Cool It,” the skeptical environmentalist’s guide to global warming. Lomborg systematically dismantles Gore’s argument that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the biggest threat facing mankind, and that humanity must focus all our attention on fighting it....
Congress Continues to Feed Overstuffed Park Service
On Wednesday, members of the House Natural Resources Committee will vote on the "America's Historical and Natural Legacy Study Act" (H.R. 3998), a massive bill that would direct the National Park Service to "study" the prospects of adding multiple new properties to its already expansive fiefdom. Included in the bill is the "Mississippi River Study Act" which would set the wheels in motion for creating a new national trail along the entire Mississippi River. Last year, I had the honor of testifying before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands on behalf of The National Center for Public Policy Research. Below is an excerpt: The Mississippi River Trail Study Act… carries significant, negative property rights implications for landowners in the path and vicinity of the proposed trail - whether the trail be the river itself or an adjacent, land-based trail. Its timing is bad because it would drain resources from an agency that is already stretched well beyond its capacity. It also comes at a time when Americans across the nation are demanding that government use of eminent domain power be strictly curtailed. A national scenic or historic trail the entire length of the Mississippi River would bring a new threat of eminent domain to property owners in as many as ten states. In addition to laying the groundwork for a national trail along the Mississippi River, H.R. 3998 would direct the Park Service to consider expanding two existing national historic sites, one existing national trail, and a huge national recreation area dubbed "the Rim of the Valley Corridor" in California. Also included in the bill are four, yet-to-be-classified, new Park Service units and another national trail that would wind through Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California....
Green Around the Gills
"We have turned out the lights in the studio," NBC's Bob Costas told viewers of Sunday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game, "to kick off a week that will include more than 150 hours of programming designed to raise awareness about environmental issues." Discerning viewers with eyes keen enough to pierce the sanctimonious glare of Costas' candlelit silhouette may have noticed that the stadium's klieg lights still shone brightly. On a typical game day, a large football stadium burns about 65,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 35,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The cars driving to the game spew about 200 metric tons of CO2 (and that assumes nobody's driving SUVs or RVs, which is like assuming tailgaters are eating only sushi). There's also the electricity used to broadcast the game and to watch it. But thank goodness Costas turned off the studio lights for a minute or two. NBC's "Green Week" continued apace (well after this writing). Morbidly obese contestants on "The Biggest Loser" lugged piles of recyclable cans up ramps and into enormous collection bins. Of course, the cans were delivered to the stunt by diesel truck. So a lot of energy - and sweat! - that could have been used toward fermenting homebrew tofu, or whatever energy is supposed to be used for, was wasted on viewer schadenfreude. The winners of the challenge each received a hybrid SUV. Alas, one of the winners didn't own a car to begin with, so the net result was one more car on the road and a little more CO2 in the air. On "Days of Our Lives," a fictional couple had a fictionally "green" wedding....
Saturday, November 10, 2007
MEXICAN WOLF
CATRON COUNTY COMMISSION
PO BOX 507
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman
Contact: Ed Wehrheim, Catron County Chairman
Phone 505.533.6423
Email: ccmanager@gilanet.com
HABITUATED WOLVES ARE DANGEROUS WOLVES
Catron County Presses FWS on Habituated Wolves
RESERVE, N.M. A recent inquest determined that Kenton Carnegie had been killed by wolves two years ago in Ontario, Canada. On October 11 of this year, the Catron County Commission sent a letter to Dr. Benjamin Tuggle of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notifying him of the County’s findings of imminent danger and a demand for permanent removal of a male Mexican wolf from the Durango pack. The wolf had, at that time, been documented as frequenting two homes, one twenty-one times and another seven times over the course of a few months.
In its letter to Dr. Tuggle, the County cited the “10J Rule”, a part of the Endangered Species Act which applies to the experimental, non-essential Mexican wolf population. This rule provides guidance for management of the Mexican wolf program and definitions of what constitutes a problem wolf. The County pointed out that the wolf in question met four of the five possible identifiers (only one is required for a wolf to be so identified). According to the 10J Rule, a problem wolf can be removed from the wild by the wolf program before it performs some action which may require, by the same Rule, that the wolf be destroyed.
However, in his October 27 letter of reply, Dr. Tuggle chose to disagree with the County’s findings, stating that the wolf’s actions did not constitute problem behavior, and further stated that the behaviors exhibited by the wolf would be best dealt with via “aversive conditioning methods”, stating that the measures had been proven to be successful.
During the ten days that these methods were employed by authorities, the wolf returned to one of the homes five times.
“Dr. Tuggle seems to think the wolf’s being documented at homes 28 times is normal wolf behavior,” said Catron County’s Wolf Interaction Investigator, Jess Carey. “He thinks it is acceptable for a family to have to live with people on their property on a daily basis, hazing the wolves away to protect the family.”
According to a recent report by Dr. Valerius Geist, a Canadian biologist, becoming used to and not afraid of humans is one of the final steps before a wolf starts seeing humans as prey. Dr. Geist consulted wolf experts from around the world and identified seven stages of wolf habituation leading to attacks on humans.
“It appears that Dr. Tuggle is content that wolves in Catron County are displaying the exact behavior displayed by wolves that killed and ate Kenton Carnegie,” said Ed Wehrheim, Chairman of the Catron County Commission. “We have a serious problem of escalating habituated behavior here. We told Dr. Tuggle very clearly of the evidence we have that the wolf is habituated and therefore a problem wolf. We invited him to come down here and examine our evidence. Our documentation includes three videos that were taken of wolves in people’s yards, taken from their living room window. A habituated wolf is a dangerous wolf and we need to get these habituated wolves out of the our county so they are no longer threatening our people.”
In a reply letter to Dr. Tuggle from the County, Wehrheim stated “the County has taken no action in order to give you time to do your job. However, we can wait no longer.” Commissioner Wehrheim stated that the County will take measures to protect its citizens, acting under the Catron County Wolf Protection Ordinance. “It is the moral and legal responsibility of the Catron County Commission, first and foremost, to protect the safety, health and welfare of the residents of Catron County,” the letter concludes.
# # #
Laura,
On Monday night November 5th at 10:00 PM our deer hunting camp on the West Fork of the Gila River, was terrorized by a pack of wolves estimated to be 4 to 6 in number. They came right into our camp howling right between our hunters tent and the cook tent and then just on the other side of the guide's tent. We had our horses and mules high lined at the camp and when we started hearing the wolves growl right next to the horses, we got up and tried to run them out. We walked down to the end of the highlines, with several thousands of dollars worth of horse and mule fllesh tied up and it probably looked like a smorgage board or shish kabob to the wolves, and it became quiet for a little while. We went back to the tent, and then the\ wolves moved back in and started howling again. My son Brian went back down to protect the animals by getting between them and the wolves, and then the wolves really set up a racket of a combination of howling, yap barking, growling and snapping their teeth. They were really intimidated by him being there. It sounded like 4 to 6 wolves and my son held his ground in the pitch black of night and had to stay there for probably 30 minutes before he was satisfied they had maybe left. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. Brian said it litterally scared the hell out of him!
Our three hunters from the San Antonio, TX area were really scared, so much so they stayed real quiet through the whole ordeal in fear that the wolves might hear them and come to their tent, which is where the first howls came from. They literally can not believe what the Government is doing to the people here by putting the wolves back. The old timers got rid of them for good reason.
Over the last several years we have had wolves howling out side of our camp but never had them come right through camp and absolutely have no fear of humans or human scent. They acted very aggressive and especially so when my son confronted them the last time. They really became excited. These wolves are absolutely a danger to humans and livestock as they seemed to not even care about human scent like most wild animals.
We think Nick Smith used to camp where we were camped, when he was packing elk meat and dog food in a few years ago to feed the wolves. We had heard the wolfer airplane circling in the TurkeyFeather Mountain area earlier that day and the tracks confirmed they had come up out of Cooper Canyon and Iron Creek on the trail and over Turkey Feather Pass and down to the West Fork of the Gila and returned out the same way. There were wolf tracks on the trail for about 5 miles.
When we came out yesterday on Thursday November 8th, we met a group of male back packers who were camped on the confluence of Cooper Canyon and Iron Creek and they related a story to my hunters who were on the back of our packstring, and I didn't get to talk to, as I had passed by them, or I would have gotten a name and info from them. They said that on Wednesday evening that they were above camp gathering firewood when they noticed movement and the saw the wolves and evidently the wolves made a move toward them and they ran back to camp and one of them climbed up in a tree and waited until the wolves left. They were terrified!
I haven't looked at the flight report to see what wolf pack it might be, but I'm here to tell you, these wolves are aggressive and not afraid of humans and can pose a real danger to recreationists and hunters or who ever might be out there, and I think it behooves the NM Game & Fish Dept. and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to put out warnings to Gila Wilderness recreationists to be very alert, and probably packing some heat wouldn't hurt either.
Tom Klumker
San Francisco River Outfitters
Glenwood, NM
Stay up to date by visiting Wolf Crossing
CATRON COUNTY COMMISSION
PO BOX 507
RESERVE NM 87830
Ed Wehrheim, Chairman
Contact: Ed Wehrheim, Catron County Chairman
Phone 505.533.6423
Email: ccmanager@gilanet.com
HABITUATED WOLVES ARE DANGEROUS WOLVES
Catron County Presses FWS on Habituated Wolves
RESERVE, N.M. A recent inquest determined that Kenton Carnegie had been killed by wolves two years ago in Ontario, Canada. On October 11 of this year, the Catron County Commission sent a letter to Dr. Benjamin Tuggle of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service notifying him of the County’s findings of imminent danger and a demand for permanent removal of a male Mexican wolf from the Durango pack. The wolf had, at that time, been documented as frequenting two homes, one twenty-one times and another seven times over the course of a few months.
In its letter to Dr. Tuggle, the County cited the “10J Rule”, a part of the Endangered Species Act which applies to the experimental, non-essential Mexican wolf population. This rule provides guidance for management of the Mexican wolf program and definitions of what constitutes a problem wolf. The County pointed out that the wolf in question met four of the five possible identifiers (only one is required for a wolf to be so identified). According to the 10J Rule, a problem wolf can be removed from the wild by the wolf program before it performs some action which may require, by the same Rule, that the wolf be destroyed.
However, in his October 27 letter of reply, Dr. Tuggle chose to disagree with the County’s findings, stating that the wolf’s actions did not constitute problem behavior, and further stated that the behaviors exhibited by the wolf would be best dealt with via “aversive conditioning methods”, stating that the measures had been proven to be successful.
During the ten days that these methods were employed by authorities, the wolf returned to one of the homes five times.
“Dr. Tuggle seems to think the wolf’s being documented at homes 28 times is normal wolf behavior,” said Catron County’s Wolf Interaction Investigator, Jess Carey. “He thinks it is acceptable for a family to have to live with people on their property on a daily basis, hazing the wolves away to protect the family.”
According to a recent report by Dr. Valerius Geist, a Canadian biologist, becoming used to and not afraid of humans is one of the final steps before a wolf starts seeing humans as prey. Dr. Geist consulted wolf experts from around the world and identified seven stages of wolf habituation leading to attacks on humans.
“It appears that Dr. Tuggle is content that wolves in Catron County are displaying the exact behavior displayed by wolves that killed and ate Kenton Carnegie,” said Ed Wehrheim, Chairman of the Catron County Commission. “We have a serious problem of escalating habituated behavior here. We told Dr. Tuggle very clearly of the evidence we have that the wolf is habituated and therefore a problem wolf. We invited him to come down here and examine our evidence. Our documentation includes three videos that were taken of wolves in people’s yards, taken from their living room window. A habituated wolf is a dangerous wolf and we need to get these habituated wolves out of the our county so they are no longer threatening our people.”
In a reply letter to Dr. Tuggle from the County, Wehrheim stated “the County has taken no action in order to give you time to do your job. However, we can wait no longer.” Commissioner Wehrheim stated that the County will take measures to protect its citizens, acting under the Catron County Wolf Protection Ordinance. “It is the moral and legal responsibility of the Catron County Commission, first and foremost, to protect the safety, health and welfare of the residents of Catron County,” the letter concludes.
# # #
Laura,
On Monday night November 5th at 10:00 PM our deer hunting camp on the West Fork of the Gila River, was terrorized by a pack of wolves estimated to be 4 to 6 in number. They came right into our camp howling right between our hunters tent and the cook tent and then just on the other side of the guide's tent. We had our horses and mules high lined at the camp and when we started hearing the wolves growl right next to the horses, we got up and tried to run them out. We walked down to the end of the highlines, with several thousands of dollars worth of horse and mule fllesh tied up and it probably looked like a smorgage board or shish kabob to the wolves, and it became quiet for a little while. We went back to the tent, and then the\ wolves moved back in and started howling again. My son Brian went back down to protect the animals by getting between them and the wolves, and then the wolves really set up a racket of a combination of howling, yap barking, growling and snapping their teeth. They were really intimidated by him being there. It sounded like 4 to 6 wolves and my son held his ground in the pitch black of night and had to stay there for probably 30 minutes before he was satisfied they had maybe left. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep the rest of the night. Brian said it litterally scared the hell out of him!
Our three hunters from the San Antonio, TX area were really scared, so much so they stayed real quiet through the whole ordeal in fear that the wolves might hear them and come to their tent, which is where the first howls came from. They literally can not believe what the Government is doing to the people here by putting the wolves back. The old timers got rid of them for good reason.
Over the last several years we have had wolves howling out side of our camp but never had them come right through camp and absolutely have no fear of humans or human scent. They acted very aggressive and especially so when my son confronted them the last time. They really became excited. These wolves are absolutely a danger to humans and livestock as they seemed to not even care about human scent like most wild animals.
We think Nick Smith used to camp where we were camped, when he was packing elk meat and dog food in a few years ago to feed the wolves. We had heard the wolfer airplane circling in the TurkeyFeather Mountain area earlier that day and the tracks confirmed they had come up out of Cooper Canyon and Iron Creek on the trail and over Turkey Feather Pass and down to the West Fork of the Gila and returned out the same way. There were wolf tracks on the trail for about 5 miles.
When we came out yesterday on Thursday November 8th, we met a group of male back packers who were camped on the confluence of Cooper Canyon and Iron Creek and they related a story to my hunters who were on the back of our packstring, and I didn't get to talk to, as I had passed by them, or I would have gotten a name and info from them. They said that on Wednesday evening that they were above camp gathering firewood when they noticed movement and the saw the wolves and evidently the wolves made a move toward them and they ran back to camp and one of them climbed up in a tree and waited until the wolves left. They were terrified!
I haven't looked at the flight report to see what wolf pack it might be, but I'm here to tell you, these wolves are aggressive and not afraid of humans and can pose a real danger to recreationists and hunters or who ever might be out there, and I think it behooves the NM Game & Fish Dept. and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to put out warnings to Gila Wilderness recreationists to be very alert, and probably packing some heat wouldn't hurt either.
Tom Klumker
San Francisco River Outfitters
Glenwood, NM
Stay up to date by visiting Wolf Crossing
Friday, November 09, 2007
California, other states sue U.S. on car emissions California sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, demanding a quick federal decision that would allow the nation's most populous state to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. "California is ready to implement the nation's cleanest standards for vehicle emissions, but we cannot do that until the federal government grants a waiver allowing us to enforce those standards," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. The long-threatened legal action follows a 2005 California law requiring new vehicles to meet tighter standards for emissions, starting with 2009 models introduced next year. California needs a waiver from the federal government because it is seeking to impose stricter standards than those imposed under federal law. The legal filing asks the court to force a EPA decision on the matter....
Piñon ranchers stay on guard An amendment that would prevent the Army from expanding Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site for a year — likely to pass with the country's 2008 military construction spending bill — hasn't calmed fears in cattle country. Not with the state's two senators, Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, now pushing a separate provision calling for an extensive study of expansion. "They're keeping a cloud over everybody's head," says Lon Robertson, a Kim rancher. "With as much opposition as there is to this, you'd think they'd pull away." Robertson leads the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, a group of ranchers, rural businesses, conservationists, scientists, town, city and county councils, even schools, together aiming to keep the maneuver site at 235,000 acres. Aside from cattle and cowboys, the grassy lands east of Walsenburg are rife with rare animals, centuries-old native rock art, American Indian remnants and dinosaur footprints. The Army, however, now is facing a nationwide deficit for training land — 5 million acres, according to Allard. The Army says it needs to expand the Fort Carson site by some 418,000 acres in preparation for possible future wars to be fought with evolving technology....
Yellowstone caldera is rising fast, experts say Yellowstone's volcanic basin in Wyoming rose almost 3 inches a year from 2004 to 2006, the fastest uplift ever recorded at the national park, according to scientists. The swelling is likely caused by molten rock flowing up from a chamber beneath the world's largest active volcanic depression, or caldera.
While the vertical rise was twice as fast as the horizontal movement of the San Andreas fault in California, the uplift doesn't signal an imminent eruption, according to an article in today's issue of the journal Science. The rate of elevation has slowed since 2006 to about 2 inches a year at Yellowstone, site of the Old Faithful geyser, said the article's co-author, Robert B. Smith, a geophysics professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The floor may continue rising, or go down as it did in early 2004. "These big magma chambers, they have to get magma from deep within the Earth," Smith said in an interview. "They huff and puff over decades." He said he is "trying to defuse the idea" that a large eruption is imminent....
Fur may fly as wolf lecture looks at livestock problem After two relatively benign presentations in the past month focusing on the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf into Gila country, the Southwest Environmental Center's El Lobo in the Southwest lecture series finally ventures into some potentially contentious territory. The first lecture in the series focused on basic wolf biology and the history of the wolf reintroduction. The second lecture focused on the potential for wolf-based ecotourism in the wolf recovery area. Tonight's lecture will delve into the most controversial aspect of the reintroduction program: wolves preying on livestock. "It has been our goal for the entire series to try to raise awareness and present factually based information to try to get beyond the controversy," said Kevin Bixby, executive director of the Las Cruces-based Southwest Environmental Center. "We have really wanted to focus on solutions." So far, though, Bixby admits the turnout in Silver City has been somewhat disappointing....
Buttefield Trail bill clears House committee A bill to weigh federal recognition of the Butterfield Trail, a pioneer mail route that runs through Fort Smith, advanced Wednesday in Congress. The bill was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee by voice vote. It now heads to the full House for further votes. It would direct Dirk Kempthorne, the secretary of the interior, to begin a study to determine if the Butterfield route warrants designation as a "national trail," and eligible for preservation funds and tourist promotions. The Butterfield Trail spans more than 2,800 miles starting with two trails in Missouri that meet in Fort Smith. The trail runs through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and ends in San Francisco. It was created in 1857, a few years before the famed Pony Express, by John Butterfield, a 19th century entrepreneur looking to establish mail routes across the frontier....
Gillette studies CBM water use The city of Gillette is considering mixing water pumped during coalbed methane gas production with regular drinking water to stretch the city's supply in the face of a projected water shortage. Steve Peterson, Gillette's utility engineering manager, said the city has spoken with some in the coalbed industry about providing water as a short-term solution. Companies pump water from the ground in coalbed methane production. Peterson said the city's need for the water will continue until a planned $170 million pipeline can be built in the next 10 years. "We could use the water starting next summer," Peterson said. The city needs an estimated 5 million gallons a day. Under the city's proposal, coalbed methane companies would be responsible for the delivery of the water to the city. It would have to meet or exceed state and federal drinking water standards. The city wants a 10-year commitment to provide the water, but would allow either side to terminate the agreement on 30 days notice....
House Approves Peru Free Trade Pact The House on Thursday approved a free trade agreement with Peru, the first under a Democratic majority in Congress that has declared that labor rights and the environment must be central parts of all such pacts. The vote was 285-132, a comfortable margin of victory in the House. Trade deals have always been a hard sell among House members, mainly Democrats who have equated them with job losses and soaring trade deficits. The accord with Peru would eliminate duties immediately on some 80 percent of U.S. industrial exports and two-thirds of farm exports. It could increase American exports by $1 billion a year. A Senate vote, which could come in the next several weeks, would allow the accord to go into effect. Democrats generally have resisted free trade deals they blame for job losses and trade deficits, and their rise to power in January was seemingly a blow to the Bush administration's aggressive free trade agenda. But the situation changed in May when the administration agreed to Democratic demands that labor rights and the environment be core elements of any future agreements. The agreement requires the parties to abide by International Labor Organization standards. The pact also commits the parties to enforce their own environmental standards, participate in international environmental accords and not weaken or reduce environmental laws to attract trade or investment....
Canada braces for backlog with new U.S. meat tests Canadian meat exporters braced for delays in shipments to their biggest export market after the U.S. Agriculture Department said it would begin on Friday to double its testing of shipments crossing the border. Late on Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Canadian beef processors said they still did not have all the details on how the new testing program would work. "There's a lot of questions that perhaps might not be answered until we hit the ground running," said Robert Meijer, spokesman for Cargill Ltd, Canada's top beef processor. Until more details are available, Cargill will not export meat destined to become ground beef, Meijer said. Cargill has not cut Canadian production ahead of the new measures, but the company may have to consider that if the testing process causes major snarls at the border, he said. On Thursday, the USDA clarified what types of meat it would test, the rate of testing, and how it would recall contaminated shipments. It also said that it would consider alternatives to holding product at the border....
Piñon ranchers stay on guard An amendment that would prevent the Army from expanding Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site for a year — likely to pass with the country's 2008 military construction spending bill — hasn't calmed fears in cattle country. Not with the state's two senators, Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, now pushing a separate provision calling for an extensive study of expansion. "They're keeping a cloud over everybody's head," says Lon Robertson, a Kim rancher. "With as much opposition as there is to this, you'd think they'd pull away." Robertson leads the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, a group of ranchers, rural businesses, conservationists, scientists, town, city and county councils, even schools, together aiming to keep the maneuver site at 235,000 acres. Aside from cattle and cowboys, the grassy lands east of Walsenburg are rife with rare animals, centuries-old native rock art, American Indian remnants and dinosaur footprints. The Army, however, now is facing a nationwide deficit for training land — 5 million acres, according to Allard. The Army says it needs to expand the Fort Carson site by some 418,000 acres in preparation for possible future wars to be fought with evolving technology....
Yellowstone caldera is rising fast, experts say Yellowstone's volcanic basin in Wyoming rose almost 3 inches a year from 2004 to 2006, the fastest uplift ever recorded at the national park, according to scientists. The swelling is likely caused by molten rock flowing up from a chamber beneath the world's largest active volcanic depression, or caldera.
While the vertical rise was twice as fast as the horizontal movement of the San Andreas fault in California, the uplift doesn't signal an imminent eruption, according to an article in today's issue of the journal Science. The rate of elevation has slowed since 2006 to about 2 inches a year at Yellowstone, site of the Old Faithful geyser, said the article's co-author, Robert B. Smith, a geophysics professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The floor may continue rising, or go down as it did in early 2004. "These big magma chambers, they have to get magma from deep within the Earth," Smith said in an interview. "They huff and puff over decades." He said he is "trying to defuse the idea" that a large eruption is imminent....
Fur may fly as wolf lecture looks at livestock problem After two relatively benign presentations in the past month focusing on the reintroduction of the Mexican gray wolf into Gila country, the Southwest Environmental Center's El Lobo in the Southwest lecture series finally ventures into some potentially contentious territory. The first lecture in the series focused on basic wolf biology and the history of the wolf reintroduction. The second lecture focused on the potential for wolf-based ecotourism in the wolf recovery area. Tonight's lecture will delve into the most controversial aspect of the reintroduction program: wolves preying on livestock. "It has been our goal for the entire series to try to raise awareness and present factually based information to try to get beyond the controversy," said Kevin Bixby, executive director of the Las Cruces-based Southwest Environmental Center. "We have really wanted to focus on solutions." So far, though, Bixby admits the turnout in Silver City has been somewhat disappointing....
Buttefield Trail bill clears House committee A bill to weigh federal recognition of the Butterfield Trail, a pioneer mail route that runs through Fort Smith, advanced Wednesday in Congress. The bill was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee by voice vote. It now heads to the full House for further votes. It would direct Dirk Kempthorne, the secretary of the interior, to begin a study to determine if the Butterfield route warrants designation as a "national trail," and eligible for preservation funds and tourist promotions. The Butterfield Trail spans more than 2,800 miles starting with two trails in Missouri that meet in Fort Smith. The trail runs through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and ends in San Francisco. It was created in 1857, a few years before the famed Pony Express, by John Butterfield, a 19th century entrepreneur looking to establish mail routes across the frontier....
Gillette studies CBM water use The city of Gillette is considering mixing water pumped during coalbed methane gas production with regular drinking water to stretch the city's supply in the face of a projected water shortage. Steve Peterson, Gillette's utility engineering manager, said the city has spoken with some in the coalbed industry about providing water as a short-term solution. Companies pump water from the ground in coalbed methane production. Peterson said the city's need for the water will continue until a planned $170 million pipeline can be built in the next 10 years. "We could use the water starting next summer," Peterson said. The city needs an estimated 5 million gallons a day. Under the city's proposal, coalbed methane companies would be responsible for the delivery of the water to the city. It would have to meet or exceed state and federal drinking water standards. The city wants a 10-year commitment to provide the water, but would allow either side to terminate the agreement on 30 days notice....
House Approves Peru Free Trade Pact The House on Thursday approved a free trade agreement with Peru, the first under a Democratic majority in Congress that has declared that labor rights and the environment must be central parts of all such pacts. The vote was 285-132, a comfortable margin of victory in the House. Trade deals have always been a hard sell among House members, mainly Democrats who have equated them with job losses and soaring trade deficits. The accord with Peru would eliminate duties immediately on some 80 percent of U.S. industrial exports and two-thirds of farm exports. It could increase American exports by $1 billion a year. A Senate vote, which could come in the next several weeks, would allow the accord to go into effect. Democrats generally have resisted free trade deals they blame for job losses and trade deficits, and their rise to power in January was seemingly a blow to the Bush administration's aggressive free trade agenda. But the situation changed in May when the administration agreed to Democratic demands that labor rights and the environment be core elements of any future agreements. The agreement requires the parties to abide by International Labor Organization standards. The pact also commits the parties to enforce their own environmental standards, participate in international environmental accords and not weaken or reduce environmental laws to attract trade or investment....
Canada braces for backlog with new U.S. meat tests Canadian meat exporters braced for delays in shipments to their biggest export market after the U.S. Agriculture Department said it would begin on Friday to double its testing of shipments crossing the border. Late on Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Canadian beef processors said they still did not have all the details on how the new testing program would work. "There's a lot of questions that perhaps might not be answered until we hit the ground running," said Robert Meijer, spokesman for Cargill Ltd, Canada's top beef processor. Until more details are available, Cargill will not export meat destined to become ground beef, Meijer said. Cargill has not cut Canadian production ahead of the new measures, but the company may have to consider that if the testing process causes major snarls at the border, he said. On Thursday, the USDA clarified what types of meat it would test, the rate of testing, and how it would recall contaminated shipments. It also said that it would consider alternatives to holding product at the border....
FLE
Border Security Falls Short In Audit U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers failed to stop roughly 1 in 10 illegal immigrants and serious drug and weapons violators from entering the United States through airports and official land border crossings last year, according to a new congressional review. While screeners turned back more than 200,000 foreigners in 2006, random audits indicate that they missed another 20,000 violators. The Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm, blamed failures by officers and supervisors along with inadequate training and staffing. A Customs and Border Protection study this summer concluded that the agency needs 1,600 to 4,000 more officers and agricultural specialists at the nation's air, land and sea ports, or a boost of 7 to 25 percent, the GAO reported. The federal government has embarked on a costly buildup to guard remote stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border, doubling the Border Patrol ranks to 18,000 agents between 2000 and 2008, planning to add 570 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers and 200 miles of sensors by then, and boosting spending on border security to $9 billion last year. But experts say as many as half of the United States' estimated 12 million illegal immigrants entered the country not by sneaking across the border but by evading detection at the 326 legal ports of entry or by overstaying visas....
Border chief in TB row to retire The federal official in charge of the El Paso, Texas, border crossing — where a Mexican national with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis was allowed to enter the U.S. 76 times since August 2006 — has announced his retirement. Luis Garcia, director of field operations in El Paso, said his retirement is not related to a Senate inquiry as to how Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya traveled more than 20 times into the U.S. after his illness was discovered by health authorities on April 16. Mr. Garcia, who announced his retirement in a memo to employees on Oct. 31, recently has faced scrutiny over border policies that include limited screening at checkpoints and inadequate screening of some immigrants who apply for extended-stay visas....
Homeland Security grants used to buy gym gear Several South Florida fire departments have used Department of Homeland Security grants administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to beef up their gyms. And it's all legal. According to a report Monday by The Miami Herald partner WFOR-CBS4, fire departments in Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County and Pompano Beach have used a portion of $660,000 in Fire Act Grants awarded between 2002 and 2006 to buy treadmills, recumbent bikes and other exercise equipment. FEMA's guidelines allow such measures. Hialeah Fire Rescue used $88,083 from a 2002 grant to buy seven step machines, seven treadmills and a Nautilus weight machine. Fort Lauderdale firefighters were aided with a $292,930 grant by FEMA in 2003. With at least part of that money they bought weight machines, treadmills and exercise equipment....
AT&T gave feds access to all Web, phone traffic, ex-tech says His first inkling that something was amiss came in summer 2002, when he opened the door to admit a visitor from the National Security Agency (NSA) to an AT&T office in San Francisco. "What the heck is the NSA doing here?" Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, said he asked himself. A year or so later, he stumbled upon documents that, he said, show the agency gained access to massive amounts of e-mail, Web search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecom providers. AT&T allowed the agency to hook into its network and, according to Klein, many of the other telecom companies probably knew nothing about it. Klein will be on Capitol Hill today to share his story in the hope it will persuade Congress not to grant legal immunity to telecommunications firms that helped the government in its warrantless anti-terrorism efforts....
Border Security Falls Short In Audit U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers failed to stop roughly 1 in 10 illegal immigrants and serious drug and weapons violators from entering the United States through airports and official land border crossings last year, according to a new congressional review. While screeners turned back more than 200,000 foreigners in 2006, random audits indicate that they missed another 20,000 violators. The Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm, blamed failures by officers and supervisors along with inadequate training and staffing. A Customs and Border Protection study this summer concluded that the agency needs 1,600 to 4,000 more officers and agricultural specialists at the nation's air, land and sea ports, or a boost of 7 to 25 percent, the GAO reported. The federal government has embarked on a costly buildup to guard remote stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border, doubling the Border Patrol ranks to 18,000 agents between 2000 and 2008, planning to add 570 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers and 200 miles of sensors by then, and boosting spending on border security to $9 billion last year. But experts say as many as half of the United States' estimated 12 million illegal immigrants entered the country not by sneaking across the border but by evading detection at the 326 legal ports of entry or by overstaying visas....
Border chief in TB row to retire The federal official in charge of the El Paso, Texas, border crossing — where a Mexican national with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis was allowed to enter the U.S. 76 times since August 2006 — has announced his retirement. Luis Garcia, director of field operations in El Paso, said his retirement is not related to a Senate inquiry as to how Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya traveled more than 20 times into the U.S. after his illness was discovered by health authorities on April 16. Mr. Garcia, who announced his retirement in a memo to employees on Oct. 31, recently has faced scrutiny over border policies that include limited screening at checkpoints and inadequate screening of some immigrants who apply for extended-stay visas....
Homeland Security grants used to buy gym gear Several South Florida fire departments have used Department of Homeland Security grants administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to beef up their gyms. And it's all legal. According to a report Monday by The Miami Herald partner WFOR-CBS4, fire departments in Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County and Pompano Beach have used a portion of $660,000 in Fire Act Grants awarded between 2002 and 2006 to buy treadmills, recumbent bikes and other exercise equipment. FEMA's guidelines allow such measures. Hialeah Fire Rescue used $88,083 from a 2002 grant to buy seven step machines, seven treadmills and a Nautilus weight machine. Fort Lauderdale firefighters were aided with a $292,930 grant by FEMA in 2003. With at least part of that money they bought weight machines, treadmills and exercise equipment....
AT&T gave feds access to all Web, phone traffic, ex-tech says His first inkling that something was amiss came in summer 2002, when he opened the door to admit a visitor from the National Security Agency (NSA) to an AT&T office in San Francisco. "What the heck is the NSA doing here?" Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, said he asked himself. A year or so later, he stumbled upon documents that, he said, show the agency gained access to massive amounts of e-mail, Web search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecom providers. AT&T allowed the agency to hook into its network and, according to Klein, many of the other telecom companies probably knew nothing about it. Klein will be on Capitol Hill today to share his story in the hope it will persuade Congress not to grant legal immunity to telecommunications firms that helped the government in its warrantless anti-terrorism efforts....
Thursday, November 08, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Whose Sheep? Mountain sheep vanished from Oregon in the 1940s, disappearing even earlier on the Idaho side of the canyon. Now they're back, at least to some degree. But whether these iconic animals will ever return to their historical levels is not yet clear. For at least 20 years, biologists have recommended keeping domestic and wild sheep apart on the range. Years of research have shown that when bighorns interact with their tame cousins, massive bighorn sheep die-offs soon follow. Nearly 20,000 domestic sheep still graze on parts of the Payette National Forest in Idaho, which contains ideal range—for both domestic and wild sheep—and is contiguous with Hells Canyon. New telemetry data have confirmed what biologists long suspected: Wild sheep from Hells Canyon are roaming onto domestic grazing allotments on the Payette. This summer, the Forest Service for the first time barred domestic sheep from those parts of the forest that connect with bighorn sheep habitat. That decision was upheld by a federal judge. But the recovery of the bighorns may depend, ultimately, on the outcome of a continuing legal dispute between supporters of wild sheep reintroduction and longtime domesticated sheep ranchers in Idaho. The battle for the Payette promises to clarify where bighorns will be protected. At the same time, it may determine the future of the sheep-ranching industry, which has depended on access to public grazing leases across the West for more than a century.
Strange bedfellows A scheme to help preserve biological diversity that pleases both environmental groups and land-use groups would be quite an accomplishment. Congress has a chance to approve such a plan. The Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2007 has broad support, including the Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation and Defenders of Wildlife on one side and the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Society of American Foresters and a coalition that includes the National Association of Home Builders on the other. Some of these groups have faced off in court. This approach gives them a chance to work together. Introduced in both the House (HR 1422) and Senate (S 700), this proposal creates tax incentives for private landowners, primarily farmers and ranchers, who proactively preserve or enhance habitat for threatened or endangered species. Agreements that earn tax credits can include restrictions on how land is used. The goal remains species preservation, but this is a cooperative model instead of an adversarial one. It makes an endangered species a benefit to the landowner instead of a liability. The bill has moved through Senate committees in two forms. One is a stand-alone version, which we strongly support....
Pinyon-juniper chaining project will benefit wildlife, watershed Deer, elk and a portion of the watershed draining into the Duchesne River will benefit from the recent chaining of pinyon-juniper trees on the foothills of Tabby Mountain in north-central Utah. Roughly 1,000 acres of pinyon-juniper were knocked down using a heavy chain pulled by bulldozers. The project included 600 acres on the Blacktail Ridge and another 400 in Sandwash. The project is a cooperative effort among the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and its partners: the Bill Barrett Corp., the U.S. Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The Bill Barrett Corp. pledged $20,800 to the project as mitigation for wildlife disturbances. The Forest Service and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation donated $60,000 and $7,500 respectively. Another $100,000 came through the DWR as part of Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative. "The area is losing its wildlife habitat and watershed values because of the pinyon-juniper," said Alison Whittaker, DWR habitat biologist....
Preserving Our Equine Heritage on Public Lands Act Introduced in Senate Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced the Preserving our Equine Heritage on Public Lands Act (S. 2238) on November 1st. This bill is similar to the so-called “Right-to-Ride” bill that was introduced in the last Congress by Senator Crapo. “Senator Crapo has been a champion of preserving riders’ access to public lands,” said American Horse Council (AHC) President Jay Hickey. “He has retooled the bill he introduced in the last Congress and we appreciate his steadfastness in introducing the legislation again. Equestrians are going to have to let Congress know that they are concerned about access to trails and public lands and that they support this bill if we hope to get it passed.” The bill directs the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to manage the federal lands under their jurisdiction “in a manner that preserves and facilitates the continued use and access of pack and saddle stock animals” on lands on which “there is a historical tradition” of use. The bill provides that such lands “shall remain open and accessible to the use of pack and saddle stock animals” where there is such a tradition. The bill applies to the management of the National Park System, BLM lands, National Wildlife Refuge System land, and National Forest System land. The bill does not limit the federal agencies’ ultimate authority to restrict such use, provided the agencies perform the review required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The bill would also impose additional specific and designated procedures to be followed by agencies before any land closures. These procedures include advance notice of any proposed reduction in use to allow public comment, convening a public meeting near the area involved, and collaboration with various users during the process....
Feds investigate logging in forest Agriculture Department investigators are in the Giant Sequoia National Monument this week probing allegations of illegal logging, lawmakers revealed Tuesday. The investigators from the department's Office of Inspector General are examining claims that the Forest Service allowed about 200 protected trees to be chopped down in 2004 and 2005. Environmentalists contend the logging included trees removed near the popular Trail of 100 Giants. "They're looking to move pretty quickly," said Jeff Lieberson, spokesman for Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y. "We wanted them to take a look and see what the real deal is." The investigation could reopen old wounds around the Giant Sequoia National Monument, established by President Bill Clinton in 2000 despite some local opposition. Critics contended the 327,769-acre monument, carved into the existing Sequoia National Forest, would unduly cramp important commercial and recreational activities. Monument supporters fear loggers have continued to hold too much power even in areas meant to be preserved....
Ship's collision with bridge leaves 58,000 gallons of oil in San Francisco Bay After the largest oil spill in San Francisco Bay in more than a decade Wednesday, agencies today plan to continue the clean-up of 58,000 gallons of oil leaked inside the Bay as they assess damage to wildlife and beaches. The spill occurred on a foggy morning when a cargo ship collided with the Bay Bridge. Throughout the day, U.S. Coast Guard crews worked to surround the spill with floating boom, removing at least 8,000 gallons with skimmer ships and absorbent pads, said spokesman U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Anderson. "The Coast Guard is committed to protecting the environment. We are deploying all available resources to clean it up," he said. The effect on wildlife was unknown by late Wednesday night. At first, Coast Guard officials said the spill had only resulted in 140 gallons of bunker fuel entering the water. But by 10 p.m., the agency upgraded the amount to 58,000 gallons. The spill occurred when a container ship, the Cosco Busan, bound from Oakland to South Korea, hit a barrier on a tower of the bridge....
Snowy plover plan curbs beach activity The Western snowy plover, a tiny beach bird that weighs less than two ounces, could get stiff shoreline boundaries under a state plan introduced Monday. Dogs and kite-flying will be off-limits on 32 miles of beaches under the plan, introduced by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Off-road driving is already banned at the proposed sites. The plan, submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, covers 32 miles of the state’s 230 miles of sandy beaches. Plovers, whose numbers in Oregon were counted at 125 this year, have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1993. Oregon submitted the plan to the Fish and Wildlife Service to receive a permit that acknowledges recreation will at times disturb or harm plovers....
Environmentalists Are Muscling In on Atlanta's Water Supply With the Southeast suffering a prolonged drought, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, has only about a three month supply of readily accessible water. Nevertheless, in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, the Army Corps of Engineers continues to drain more than a billion gallons a day from Lake Lanier, Atlanta's main water source, to release it downstream for an endangered species of mussel. "The Endangered Species Act is a danger to the human species," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, a resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. "People find it hard to believe that environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act could really require the sacrifice of human beings to nature. But that is exactly what they have to mean in practice; they mean that in order to sustain some obscure mussel species, the people in Atlanta must go without water. Environmentalists claim that blaming the mussels is unfair. They say it is just a way of diverting attention from the real causes of the water crisis, which, in their view, are a lack of strict water conservation mandates and the 'unbridled development' of metro Atlanta over the last few years." But, says Lockitch, "this amounts to the bizarre claim that the problem is not a failure to build reservoirs and expand water capacity, but a 'failure' to obstruct economic progress and impose draconian water restrictions on Atlanta. In other words, the environmentalists' view is that Atlantans should sacrifice even more to nature....
Obama outlines rural Nevada plan Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he does not support mining reform legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives and would work to find a compromise that is more friendly to the mining industry. "The legislation that has been proposed places a significant burden on the mining industry and could have a significant impact on jobs (in rural Nevada) given the difficulties the industry is already facing in maintaining its operations," Obama said during a conference call with Nevada reporters discussing his platform for rural Nevada. Of the detailed, 11-page package of proposals, Obama stressed shoring up the mining industry, improving rural residents' access to health care and fighting "the scourge of methamphetamine." The plan also includes supporting the state's right to regulate gaming, keeping Lake Tahoe blue, fighting wildfires, protecting ranchers and opposing the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain...
Panelists nix split zone for cattle After hours of rancorous debate punctuated by yelling and boos from the audience, the Montana Board of Livestock on Tuesday stepped away from a plan to split Montana into two zones to manage a dreaded cattle disease. On a 6-1 vote, the seven-member panel that governs the Montana Department of Livestock decided to pursue other ways of preventing the spread of brucellosis from infected bison and elk in Yellowstone National Park into Montana's neighboring cattle. The decision does not mean the state will never pursue a so-called "split state" to deal with brucellosis, said board Chairman William Hedstrom. Something major, like a second case of the disease or an outcry from ranchers, would have to come up before the board would consider the issue again, he said in an interview after the meeting. "This has divided the industry, and the board is divided," Hedstrom said of the issue and the board's carefully worded resolution on the matter. It seemed to remove split-state status from consideration while not fully closing the door on the idea....
Country Music Hall of Fame Member Hank Thompson Dies Country Music Hall of Fame member Hank Thompson died late Tuesday (Nov. 7) at his home near Fort Worth, Texas, following a battle with lung cancer. The 82-year-old singer, songwriter and bandleader last week canceled all of his tour dates after being hospitalized. He played his last concert on Oct. 8 in his native Waco, Texas, when Hank Thompson Day was declared by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy. According to Thompson's official Web site, a celebration of his life will take place Nov. 14 at Billy Bob's Texas, the famed nightspot in Fort Worth. Few performers in any era of the music have known and appreciated its history as well, and Thompson, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989, was a big part of that history. His warm and rich baritone graced hits from the 1940s to the 1970s, as his award-winning Brazos Valley Boys band gave those honky-tonk hits a distinctive flavor of Western swing, much in the pattern followed later by fellow Texan George Strait. Henry William Thompson was born on Sept. 3, 1925. His parents were Jule Thomas Thompson and Zexia Ida Wells Thompson, and his paternal grandparents were German Czechs named "Kocek" who Anglicized the name to "Thompson." Though the family lived on a farm outside of town, Jule Thompson was a mechanic, and his son always had at least an amateur's interest in such handy things as radio electronics. He earned part-time money doing radio shop work in Waco during his high school days, then studied radio communications and electronics while serving in the Navy and at college extension courses (from Princeton University and the University of Texas) which helped him earn credits toward his postwar discharge. Neither of his parents even dabbled at music, and Thompson told writer Rich Kienzle that growing up, country was the only music he listened to and the only music that anybody he knew listened to....
Cow Falls Off Cliff, Crashes Onto Van on Highway Charles and Linda Everson were driving back to their hotel when their minivan was struck by a falling object — a 600-pound cow. The Eversons were unhurt but the cow, which had fallen off a cliff, had to be euthanized. The year-old cow fell about 200 feet from the cliff and landed on the hood of the couple's minivan, causing heavy damage. A Chelan County fire chief, Arnold Baker, said the couple missed being killed by a matter of inches in the accident Sunday on a highway near Manson. The Eversons, visiting the area from their home in Westland, Mich., to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, were checked at Lake Chelan Community Hospital as a precaution. Everson, 49, said he didn't see the cow falling and didn't know what happened until afterward. He said he kept repeating: "I don't believe this. I don't believe this."
Whose Sheep? Mountain sheep vanished from Oregon in the 1940s, disappearing even earlier on the Idaho side of the canyon. Now they're back, at least to some degree. But whether these iconic animals will ever return to their historical levels is not yet clear. For at least 20 years, biologists have recommended keeping domestic and wild sheep apart on the range. Years of research have shown that when bighorns interact with their tame cousins, massive bighorn sheep die-offs soon follow. Nearly 20,000 domestic sheep still graze on parts of the Payette National Forest in Idaho, which contains ideal range—for both domestic and wild sheep—and is contiguous with Hells Canyon. New telemetry data have confirmed what biologists long suspected: Wild sheep from Hells Canyon are roaming onto domestic grazing allotments on the Payette. This summer, the Forest Service for the first time barred domestic sheep from those parts of the forest that connect with bighorn sheep habitat. That decision was upheld by a federal judge. But the recovery of the bighorns may depend, ultimately, on the outcome of a continuing legal dispute between supporters of wild sheep reintroduction and longtime domesticated sheep ranchers in Idaho. The battle for the Payette promises to clarify where bighorns will be protected. At the same time, it may determine the future of the sheep-ranching industry, which has depended on access to public grazing leases across the West for more than a century.
Strange bedfellows A scheme to help preserve biological diversity that pleases both environmental groups and land-use groups would be quite an accomplishment. Congress has a chance to approve such a plan. The Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2007 has broad support, including the Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation and Defenders of Wildlife on one side and the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Society of American Foresters and a coalition that includes the National Association of Home Builders on the other. Some of these groups have faced off in court. This approach gives them a chance to work together. Introduced in both the House (HR 1422) and Senate (S 700), this proposal creates tax incentives for private landowners, primarily farmers and ranchers, who proactively preserve or enhance habitat for threatened or endangered species. Agreements that earn tax credits can include restrictions on how land is used. The goal remains species preservation, but this is a cooperative model instead of an adversarial one. It makes an endangered species a benefit to the landowner instead of a liability. The bill has moved through Senate committees in two forms. One is a stand-alone version, which we strongly support....
Pinyon-juniper chaining project will benefit wildlife, watershed Deer, elk and a portion of the watershed draining into the Duchesne River will benefit from the recent chaining of pinyon-juniper trees on the foothills of Tabby Mountain in north-central Utah. Roughly 1,000 acres of pinyon-juniper were knocked down using a heavy chain pulled by bulldozers. The project included 600 acres on the Blacktail Ridge and another 400 in Sandwash. The project is a cooperative effort among the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and its partners: the Bill Barrett Corp., the U.S. Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The Bill Barrett Corp. pledged $20,800 to the project as mitigation for wildlife disturbances. The Forest Service and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation donated $60,000 and $7,500 respectively. Another $100,000 came through the DWR as part of Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative. "The area is losing its wildlife habitat and watershed values because of the pinyon-juniper," said Alison Whittaker, DWR habitat biologist....
Preserving Our Equine Heritage on Public Lands Act Introduced in Senate Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced the Preserving our Equine Heritage on Public Lands Act (S. 2238) on November 1st. This bill is similar to the so-called “Right-to-Ride” bill that was introduced in the last Congress by Senator Crapo. “Senator Crapo has been a champion of preserving riders’ access to public lands,” said American Horse Council (AHC) President Jay Hickey. “He has retooled the bill he introduced in the last Congress and we appreciate his steadfastness in introducing the legislation again. Equestrians are going to have to let Congress know that they are concerned about access to trails and public lands and that they support this bill if we hope to get it passed.” The bill directs the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to manage the federal lands under their jurisdiction “in a manner that preserves and facilitates the continued use and access of pack and saddle stock animals” on lands on which “there is a historical tradition” of use. The bill provides that such lands “shall remain open and accessible to the use of pack and saddle stock animals” where there is such a tradition. The bill applies to the management of the National Park System, BLM lands, National Wildlife Refuge System land, and National Forest System land. The bill does not limit the federal agencies’ ultimate authority to restrict such use, provided the agencies perform the review required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The bill would also impose additional specific and designated procedures to be followed by agencies before any land closures. These procedures include advance notice of any proposed reduction in use to allow public comment, convening a public meeting near the area involved, and collaboration with various users during the process....
Feds investigate logging in forest Agriculture Department investigators are in the Giant Sequoia National Monument this week probing allegations of illegal logging, lawmakers revealed Tuesday. The investigators from the department's Office of Inspector General are examining claims that the Forest Service allowed about 200 protected trees to be chopped down in 2004 and 2005. Environmentalists contend the logging included trees removed near the popular Trail of 100 Giants. "They're looking to move pretty quickly," said Jeff Lieberson, spokesman for Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y. "We wanted them to take a look and see what the real deal is." The investigation could reopen old wounds around the Giant Sequoia National Monument, established by President Bill Clinton in 2000 despite some local opposition. Critics contended the 327,769-acre monument, carved into the existing Sequoia National Forest, would unduly cramp important commercial and recreational activities. Monument supporters fear loggers have continued to hold too much power even in areas meant to be preserved....
Ship's collision with bridge leaves 58,000 gallons of oil in San Francisco Bay After the largest oil spill in San Francisco Bay in more than a decade Wednesday, agencies today plan to continue the clean-up of 58,000 gallons of oil leaked inside the Bay as they assess damage to wildlife and beaches. The spill occurred on a foggy morning when a cargo ship collided with the Bay Bridge. Throughout the day, U.S. Coast Guard crews worked to surround the spill with floating boom, removing at least 8,000 gallons with skimmer ships and absorbent pads, said spokesman U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Anderson. "The Coast Guard is committed to protecting the environment. We are deploying all available resources to clean it up," he said. The effect on wildlife was unknown by late Wednesday night. At first, Coast Guard officials said the spill had only resulted in 140 gallons of bunker fuel entering the water. But by 10 p.m., the agency upgraded the amount to 58,000 gallons. The spill occurred when a container ship, the Cosco Busan, bound from Oakland to South Korea, hit a barrier on a tower of the bridge....
Snowy plover plan curbs beach activity The Western snowy plover, a tiny beach bird that weighs less than two ounces, could get stiff shoreline boundaries under a state plan introduced Monday. Dogs and kite-flying will be off-limits on 32 miles of beaches under the plan, introduced by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Off-road driving is already banned at the proposed sites. The plan, submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, covers 32 miles of the state’s 230 miles of sandy beaches. Plovers, whose numbers in Oregon were counted at 125 this year, have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1993. Oregon submitted the plan to the Fish and Wildlife Service to receive a permit that acknowledges recreation will at times disturb or harm plovers....
Environmentalists Are Muscling In on Atlanta's Water Supply With the Southeast suffering a prolonged drought, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, has only about a three month supply of readily accessible water. Nevertheless, in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, the Army Corps of Engineers continues to drain more than a billion gallons a day from Lake Lanier, Atlanta's main water source, to release it downstream for an endangered species of mussel. "The Endangered Species Act is a danger to the human species," said Dr. Keith Lockitch, a resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. "People find it hard to believe that environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act could really require the sacrifice of human beings to nature. But that is exactly what they have to mean in practice; they mean that in order to sustain some obscure mussel species, the people in Atlanta must go without water. Environmentalists claim that blaming the mussels is unfair. They say it is just a way of diverting attention from the real causes of the water crisis, which, in their view, are a lack of strict water conservation mandates and the 'unbridled development' of metro Atlanta over the last few years." But, says Lockitch, "this amounts to the bizarre claim that the problem is not a failure to build reservoirs and expand water capacity, but a 'failure' to obstruct economic progress and impose draconian water restrictions on Atlanta. In other words, the environmentalists' view is that Atlantans should sacrifice even more to nature....
Obama outlines rural Nevada plan Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he does not support mining reform legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives and would work to find a compromise that is more friendly to the mining industry. "The legislation that has been proposed places a significant burden on the mining industry and could have a significant impact on jobs (in rural Nevada) given the difficulties the industry is already facing in maintaining its operations," Obama said during a conference call with Nevada reporters discussing his platform for rural Nevada. Of the detailed, 11-page package of proposals, Obama stressed shoring up the mining industry, improving rural residents' access to health care and fighting "the scourge of methamphetamine." The plan also includes supporting the state's right to regulate gaming, keeping Lake Tahoe blue, fighting wildfires, protecting ranchers and opposing the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain...
Panelists nix split zone for cattle After hours of rancorous debate punctuated by yelling and boos from the audience, the Montana Board of Livestock on Tuesday stepped away from a plan to split Montana into two zones to manage a dreaded cattle disease. On a 6-1 vote, the seven-member panel that governs the Montana Department of Livestock decided to pursue other ways of preventing the spread of brucellosis from infected bison and elk in Yellowstone National Park into Montana's neighboring cattle. The decision does not mean the state will never pursue a so-called "split state" to deal with brucellosis, said board Chairman William Hedstrom. Something major, like a second case of the disease or an outcry from ranchers, would have to come up before the board would consider the issue again, he said in an interview after the meeting. "This has divided the industry, and the board is divided," Hedstrom said of the issue and the board's carefully worded resolution on the matter. It seemed to remove split-state status from consideration while not fully closing the door on the idea....
Country Music Hall of Fame Member Hank Thompson Dies Country Music Hall of Fame member Hank Thompson died late Tuesday (Nov. 7) at his home near Fort Worth, Texas, following a battle with lung cancer. The 82-year-old singer, songwriter and bandleader last week canceled all of his tour dates after being hospitalized. He played his last concert on Oct. 8 in his native Waco, Texas, when Hank Thompson Day was declared by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy. According to Thompson's official Web site, a celebration of his life will take place Nov. 14 at Billy Bob's Texas, the famed nightspot in Fort Worth. Few performers in any era of the music have known and appreciated its history as well, and Thompson, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989, was a big part of that history. His warm and rich baritone graced hits from the 1940s to the 1970s, as his award-winning Brazos Valley Boys band gave those honky-tonk hits a distinctive flavor of Western swing, much in the pattern followed later by fellow Texan George Strait. Henry William Thompson was born on Sept. 3, 1925. His parents were Jule Thomas Thompson and Zexia Ida Wells Thompson, and his paternal grandparents were German Czechs named "Kocek" who Anglicized the name to "Thompson." Though the family lived on a farm outside of town, Jule Thompson was a mechanic, and his son always had at least an amateur's interest in such handy things as radio electronics. He earned part-time money doing radio shop work in Waco during his high school days, then studied radio communications and electronics while serving in the Navy and at college extension courses (from Princeton University and the University of Texas) which helped him earn credits toward his postwar discharge. Neither of his parents even dabbled at music, and Thompson told writer Rich Kienzle that growing up, country was the only music he listened to and the only music that anybody he knew listened to....
Cow Falls Off Cliff, Crashes Onto Van on Highway Charles and Linda Everson were driving back to their hotel when their minivan was struck by a falling object — a 600-pound cow. The Eversons were unhurt but the cow, which had fallen off a cliff, had to be euthanized. The year-old cow fell about 200 feet from the cliff and landed on the hood of the couple's minivan, causing heavy damage. A Chelan County fire chief, Arnold Baker, said the couple missed being killed by a matter of inches in the accident Sunday on a highway near Manson. The Eversons, visiting the area from their home in Westland, Mich., to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, were checked at Lake Chelan Community Hospital as a precaution. Everson, 49, said he didn't see the cow falling and didn't know what happened until afterward. He said he kept repeating: "I don't believe this. I don't believe this."
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Climate Bills Will 'Require a Wholesale Transformation of the Nation's Economy and Society' A Washington Post article today stated that the Democrats' current global warming proposals "will require a wholesale transformation of the nation's economy and society." The article by Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin noted that Democrat presidential candidates' climate proposals would "cost billions of dollars," and detailed exactly what the American people will face when it comes to cap-and-trade proposals. The Post article cited an MIT expert who said climate proposals would drive up the costs of energy on already overburdened American families. "According to energy expert Tracy Terry's analysis of a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, under the scenario of an 80 percent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels, by 2015 Americans could be paying 30 percent more for natural gas in their homes and even more for electricity. At the same time, the cost of coal could quadruple and crude oil prices could rise by an additional $24 a barrel," the article reported. Even the Democratic candidates are now fully admitting that the cost of these global warming bills will be extremely costly both financially and politically, according to the Washington Post article....
Fly could halt plan to expand old cemetery The 120-year-old Hermosa Gardens Cemetery - the final resting place of many Colton pioneers, professional baseball players and notable figures such as Wyatt Earp's younger brother - could hold its last burial four years from now. That's when cemetery officials believe they will be out of room if they aren't allowed to expand. There are 20 acres adjacent to the city-owned cemetery that have been planned for burial plots, but there's a problem. The Delhi Sands flower-loving fly, a federal endangered species, was spotted over the summer on the land, officials said. "Right now, we're kind of at a standstill because of the fly," said Billy Pratt, general manager of the cemetery. "Something has to be done, but we don't know exactly what." About 40,000 people are buried in the 20-acre developed portion of the cemetery on Meridian Avenue between C and Olive streets, Pratt said....
Forest Guardians criticizes BLM habitat plans An environmental group says the Bureau of Land Management's plans to protect habitat for the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard will do the species more harm than good. "We fear this is recipe for extinction dressed up as a conservation plan," said Lauren McCain, desert and grasslands program director for Forest Guardians. The release of the proposed special status species management plan and final environmental impact statement last week started a 30-day period for protests. The BLM said its amended management plan for the prairie chicken will allow oil and gas development, grazing and off-road vehicles on federal land used by the birds but still will protect its population. Landowners and conservationists in New Mexico have been working to keep the bird from being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Forest Guardians favors listing both species....
Small rodent, big pain for builders Developer Steve Schuck said he never found a Preble’s meadow jumping mouse on land north of Colorado Springs, but he said the animal wound up costing him $1 million and years of delay. As he crawled his way through a maze of federal regulations under the Endangered Species Act, Schuck said he encountered requirements that did nothing for the “quality and the livability of the development.” “That’s all because we couldn’t prove a mouse didn’t live on our property,” he said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that the Preble’s mouse will retain its federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in Colorado but not Wyoming. While agency officials say development in Colorado has destroyed much of the mouse’s habitat, developers and some local government officials say they are being unfairly burdened by regulations to protect the mouse. "This is all about a mouse that nobody ever sees,” Schuck said. “Millions and millions of dollars are going out for this rodent — and that’s what it is,” said Monument Mayor Byron Glenn. “In the meantime, schools are not being built. Roads are not being built....
Naturalists want more info on giant worms Naturalists are searching southwest Washington state for the giant Palouse earthworm in an effort to get the species on the endangered list. The worms grow up to 3 feet long. But they are surprisingly difficult to find for a large worm, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday. The Palouse Prairie Foundation applied for an endangered species listing recently. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the petition on the grounds that there is no proof they are endangered. Very little is known about the worms, including whether they are extinct, since only four specimens have been recorded in 30 years. Most scientists believe that the worms prefer prairie habitat but there is at least one 19th-century report of worms found in a forest. Jodi Johnson-Maynard of the University of Idaho said that scientists are trying new methods to bring the worms to the surface. They include a device that sends a mild electrical shock into the earth, flooding burrows with a mild solution of hot mustard and vinegar and sending vibrations into the ground....
Advocates Sue to Enforce Pesticide Order Salmon advocates filed a lawsuit Monday to force the Bush administration to obey a 5-year-old court order requiring it to make permanent rules to keep agricultural pesticides from killing salmon. Filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the lawsuit asks a judge to order NOAA Fisheries, the agency in charge of protecting salmon, to formally consult with the Environmental Protection Agency over the use of 37 pesticides. Several are commonly found in rivers around the country and can kill salmon at minute concentrations. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour had ordered the formal consultations in 2002 and imposed temporary restrictions that barred crop-dusting next to salmon streams and required home and garden stores to post warnings for consumers....
Pickens Water Plan Poised to Gain Bond, Condemnation Authority Boone Pickens, the high-rolling oilman, may have engineered one of his shrewdest takeovers yet in the form of eight acres of Texas scrubland. The land in Roberts County, a stretch of ranchland outside Amarillo, holds no oil. Instead, it is central to Pickens's plan to create an agency to condemn property and sell tax-exempt bonds in the search for one of his other favorite commodities: water. Approval of the district is all but certain when Texans vote today in state and local elections. By law, only the two people who actually live on the eight acres will be allowed to vote --the manager of Pickens's nearby Mesa Vista ranch and his wife. The other three owners, who will sit on the district's board, all work for Pickens. Pickens ``has pulled a shenanigan,'' said Phillip Smith, a rancher who serves on a local water-conservation board. ``He's obtained the right of eminent domain like he was a big city. It's supposed to be for the public good, not a private company.'' Pickens and his allies say no shenanigans are involved. Once the district is created, the board will be able to issue tax-exempt bonds to finance construction of Pickens's planned 328-mile, $2.2 billion pipeline to transport water from the panhandle across the prairie to the suburbs of Dallas and San Antonio....
15 Bears Die In PG&E Waterway In One Month It's a baffling problem in the foothills. Fifteen bears and two mountain lions have been found drowned in a PG&E waterway in just one month. "This heightened number of bear deaths is absolutely alarming and unusual," said Nicole Tam, PG&E. It's unusual because bears are good swimmers, and also because dead bears have showed up in the canal since it was built three years ago. The canal provides electricity to thousands of homes. But only recently, did the animals' carcasses appear in the canal -- 15 bears and two mountain lions between Sept.15-Oct. 15 -- that's one every two days. Experts don't know why the animals are finding their way over the canal's barriers. PG&E says they're working with the Dept. of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest service to solve the mystery. They say it could be the work of poachers....
Dozens treated after Grand Canyon biologist dies More than two dozen people who came in close contact with a National Park Service wildlife biologist found dead last week are being given antibiotics because he may have died of an infectious disease. Eric York, 37, was found in his home at the Grand Canyon National Park on Friday. The Coconino County Medical Examiner suspects an infectious illness may have killed York because his lungs were filled with fluid and his body showed signs of pneumonia. Tests results are expected later this week. Because of York's professional interests and hobbies, medical officials believe hantavirus and plague are possible causes, according to a Park Service spokeswoman. The Park Service has located approximately 30 people who came within 6 feet of York in the days before his death and while retrieving his body, and all are being treated with a 7-day course of antibiotics as a precaution, spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said....
Yellowstone considers closing east entrance Yellowstone National Park reopens for winter in six weeks, and the debate over snowmobile use in the frozen wonderland has revved up again at the world's first national park. Most attention focuses on hundreds of snow machines allowed daily through Yellowstone's west entrance, but a standoff also clouds winter use at the park's lightly visited east gate. Avalanche-prone Sylvan Pass, about 8 miles inside that entrance, is so treacherous and costly to maintain — up to $565 per motorized visitor last season — that the park wants to close it next winter. Since the 8,530-foot pass first opened to snowmobiles in the 1970s, the park has used Army surplus howitzers and a contract helicopter to shoot down heavy buildups of snow after major storms so avalanches won't bury visitors. A risk study for the park's new winter management plan likely to be adopted this week says the threat to workers and visitors is too great....
Park service has 90 days to make offer on ranch The Texas School Land Board decided Tuesday to give the National Park Service 90 days to submit an offer to buy the Christmas Mountains Ranch. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wants to sell the 9,000-acre tract, because the state, he says, cannot adequately conserve the land. The Conservation Fund donated the land to Texas in 1991 with strict restrictions on its use. After weeks of public opposition to Patterson's plans to sell the land to a private bidder, the board decided to allow the National Park Service time to make an offer to add it to Big Bend National Park, about 300 miles southeast of El Paso. "I'm looking forward to meeting with National Park Service officials and interested parties to discuss how we can move forward," Patterson said. Patterson has been adamant that any future owner of the property must allow hunting there. The Park Service prohibits firearms in its parks, but the two private bidders have pledged to allow hunting in the Christmas Mountains.
Mount Rushmore officials sued over free speech, religion rights A Christian law group is accusing Mount Rushmore officials of trampling the free speech and religious rights of a Coon Rapids, Minn., man who alleges he cannot get a permit to distribute religious materials at the national monument. The law firm says Boardley distributed “gospel tracts” at the monument on Aug. 9 without incident but was told the next day he needed a permit. Boardley said he applied for a permit, but he has not received one. Gerard Baker, Mount Rushmore superintendent, said Monday that Boardley has never applied for a permit. “We have never denied a permit,” Baker told The Associated Press. “All he has to do is get a hold of us, and we’ll give him a permit. We issue 70-plus permits a year, and I’m not sure what’s going on.” Boardley has not applied for a permit because Mount Rushmore officials would not give him an application, both when he was at the monument and later when he called and asked for one, Kevin Theriot, ADF senior counsel, said Monday....
Broodmare sold for world-record $10.5 million at Keeneland The Emir of Dubai paid $10.5 million to buy Irish-bred Playful Act at Keeneland's Breeding Stock Sale on Monday, a world record auction price for a broodmare. The bidding was another showdown between two titans of the horse breeding industry, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Darley Stud and Coolmore Stud of Ireland. "When those two teams hook up, neither one of them wants to stop," said John Sikura of Hill 'n' Dale Bloodstock, who consigned the horse for Swettenham Stud of Australia. "It's a test of wills, test of ego. They bought a fantastic mare. Obviously we wish them nothing but the best and hope she'll bring a champion." John Ferguson, the buyer for the sheik, said he was determined to get the horse, in part to honor Swettenham's late owner, Robert Sangster, who always talked her up. "He was a great friend of Sheik Mohammed," Ferguson said of Sangster, who died in April 2004. "That is part of the reason why Sheik Mohammed was so determined to have this particular mare." During Keeneland's 2006 September yearling sale, Darley outlasted Coolmore to pay $11.7 million for a bay colt by Kingmambo, setting a sale record. The two prominent buyers have battled numerous other times at Keeneland and other auctions....
Brazile's triumph at National Finals Steer Roping puts him in pursuit of history Trevor Brazile's emergence from National Finals Steer Roping Saturday night with a second consecutive gold buckle puts him on a path toward what could become ProRodeo's first Triple Crown parlay since Roy Cooper in 1983 -- winning the steer roping, tie-down roping and all-around titles all in one year. One down. Two to go. Brazile earned a record $46,500 at the NFSR in the Lea County Event Center to run away with the steer roping world championship and will have substantial leads in both the tie-down roping and the all-around standings entering the Dec. 6-15 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in his quest to join Cooper in a very elite club. "You always want to repeat as champion," Brazile said, "and I put extra pressure on myself here because the Triple Crown is definitely in the back of my mind. You can't win a Triple Crown if you don't win the first one. This was just the first step. It is not going to be easy."....
Climate Bills Will 'Require a Wholesale Transformation of the Nation's Economy and Society' A Washington Post article today stated that the Democrats' current global warming proposals "will require a wholesale transformation of the nation's economy and society." The article by Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin noted that Democrat presidential candidates' climate proposals would "cost billions of dollars," and detailed exactly what the American people will face when it comes to cap-and-trade proposals. The Post article cited an MIT expert who said climate proposals would drive up the costs of energy on already overburdened American families. "According to energy expert Tracy Terry's analysis of a recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, under the scenario of an 80 percent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels, by 2015 Americans could be paying 30 percent more for natural gas in their homes and even more for electricity. At the same time, the cost of coal could quadruple and crude oil prices could rise by an additional $24 a barrel," the article reported. Even the Democratic candidates are now fully admitting that the cost of these global warming bills will be extremely costly both financially and politically, according to the Washington Post article....
Fly could halt plan to expand old cemetery The 120-year-old Hermosa Gardens Cemetery - the final resting place of many Colton pioneers, professional baseball players and notable figures such as Wyatt Earp's younger brother - could hold its last burial four years from now. That's when cemetery officials believe they will be out of room if they aren't allowed to expand. There are 20 acres adjacent to the city-owned cemetery that have been planned for burial plots, but there's a problem. The Delhi Sands flower-loving fly, a federal endangered species, was spotted over the summer on the land, officials said. "Right now, we're kind of at a standstill because of the fly," said Billy Pratt, general manager of the cemetery. "Something has to be done, but we don't know exactly what." About 40,000 people are buried in the 20-acre developed portion of the cemetery on Meridian Avenue between C and Olive streets, Pratt said....
Forest Guardians criticizes BLM habitat plans An environmental group says the Bureau of Land Management's plans to protect habitat for the lesser prairie chicken and the sand dune lizard will do the species more harm than good. "We fear this is recipe for extinction dressed up as a conservation plan," said Lauren McCain, desert and grasslands program director for Forest Guardians. The release of the proposed special status species management plan and final environmental impact statement last week started a 30-day period for protests. The BLM said its amended management plan for the prairie chicken will allow oil and gas development, grazing and off-road vehicles on federal land used by the birds but still will protect its population. Landowners and conservationists in New Mexico have been working to keep the bird from being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Forest Guardians favors listing both species....
Small rodent, big pain for builders Developer Steve Schuck said he never found a Preble’s meadow jumping mouse on land north of Colorado Springs, but he said the animal wound up costing him $1 million and years of delay. As he crawled his way through a maze of federal regulations under the Endangered Species Act, Schuck said he encountered requirements that did nothing for the “quality and the livability of the development.” “That’s all because we couldn’t prove a mouse didn’t live on our property,” he said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that the Preble’s mouse will retain its federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in Colorado but not Wyoming. While agency officials say development in Colorado has destroyed much of the mouse’s habitat, developers and some local government officials say they are being unfairly burdened by regulations to protect the mouse. "This is all about a mouse that nobody ever sees,” Schuck said. “Millions and millions of dollars are going out for this rodent — and that’s what it is,” said Monument Mayor Byron Glenn. “In the meantime, schools are not being built. Roads are not being built....
Naturalists want more info on giant worms Naturalists are searching southwest Washington state for the giant Palouse earthworm in an effort to get the species on the endangered list. The worms grow up to 3 feet long. But they are surprisingly difficult to find for a large worm, The Seattle Times reported Tuesday. The Palouse Prairie Foundation applied for an endangered species listing recently. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the petition on the grounds that there is no proof they are endangered. Very little is known about the worms, including whether they are extinct, since only four specimens have been recorded in 30 years. Most scientists believe that the worms prefer prairie habitat but there is at least one 19th-century report of worms found in a forest. Jodi Johnson-Maynard of the University of Idaho said that scientists are trying new methods to bring the worms to the surface. They include a device that sends a mild electrical shock into the earth, flooding burrows with a mild solution of hot mustard and vinegar and sending vibrations into the ground....
Advocates Sue to Enforce Pesticide Order Salmon advocates filed a lawsuit Monday to force the Bush administration to obey a 5-year-old court order requiring it to make permanent rules to keep agricultural pesticides from killing salmon. Filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the lawsuit asks a judge to order NOAA Fisheries, the agency in charge of protecting salmon, to formally consult with the Environmental Protection Agency over the use of 37 pesticides. Several are commonly found in rivers around the country and can kill salmon at minute concentrations. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour had ordered the formal consultations in 2002 and imposed temporary restrictions that barred crop-dusting next to salmon streams and required home and garden stores to post warnings for consumers....
Pickens Water Plan Poised to Gain Bond, Condemnation Authority Boone Pickens, the high-rolling oilman, may have engineered one of his shrewdest takeovers yet in the form of eight acres of Texas scrubland. The land in Roberts County, a stretch of ranchland outside Amarillo, holds no oil. Instead, it is central to Pickens's plan to create an agency to condemn property and sell tax-exempt bonds in the search for one of his other favorite commodities: water. Approval of the district is all but certain when Texans vote today in state and local elections. By law, only the two people who actually live on the eight acres will be allowed to vote --the manager of Pickens's nearby Mesa Vista ranch and his wife. The other three owners, who will sit on the district's board, all work for Pickens. Pickens ``has pulled a shenanigan,'' said Phillip Smith, a rancher who serves on a local water-conservation board. ``He's obtained the right of eminent domain like he was a big city. It's supposed to be for the public good, not a private company.'' Pickens and his allies say no shenanigans are involved. Once the district is created, the board will be able to issue tax-exempt bonds to finance construction of Pickens's planned 328-mile, $2.2 billion pipeline to transport water from the panhandle across the prairie to the suburbs of Dallas and San Antonio....
15 Bears Die In PG&E Waterway In One Month It's a baffling problem in the foothills. Fifteen bears and two mountain lions have been found drowned in a PG&E waterway in just one month. "This heightened number of bear deaths is absolutely alarming and unusual," said Nicole Tam, PG&E. It's unusual because bears are good swimmers, and also because dead bears have showed up in the canal since it was built three years ago. The canal provides electricity to thousands of homes. But only recently, did the animals' carcasses appear in the canal -- 15 bears and two mountain lions between Sept.15-Oct. 15 -- that's one every two days. Experts don't know why the animals are finding their way over the canal's barriers. PG&E says they're working with the Dept. of Fish and Game and the U.S. Forest service to solve the mystery. They say it could be the work of poachers....
Dozens treated after Grand Canyon biologist dies More than two dozen people who came in close contact with a National Park Service wildlife biologist found dead last week are being given antibiotics because he may have died of an infectious disease. Eric York, 37, was found in his home at the Grand Canyon National Park on Friday. The Coconino County Medical Examiner suspects an infectious illness may have killed York because his lungs were filled with fluid and his body showed signs of pneumonia. Tests results are expected later this week. Because of York's professional interests and hobbies, medical officials believe hantavirus and plague are possible causes, according to a Park Service spokeswoman. The Park Service has located approximately 30 people who came within 6 feet of York in the days before his death and while retrieving his body, and all are being treated with a 7-day course of antibiotics as a precaution, spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said....
Yellowstone considers closing east entrance Yellowstone National Park reopens for winter in six weeks, and the debate over snowmobile use in the frozen wonderland has revved up again at the world's first national park. Most attention focuses on hundreds of snow machines allowed daily through Yellowstone's west entrance, but a standoff also clouds winter use at the park's lightly visited east gate. Avalanche-prone Sylvan Pass, about 8 miles inside that entrance, is so treacherous and costly to maintain — up to $565 per motorized visitor last season — that the park wants to close it next winter. Since the 8,530-foot pass first opened to snowmobiles in the 1970s, the park has used Army surplus howitzers and a contract helicopter to shoot down heavy buildups of snow after major storms so avalanches won't bury visitors. A risk study for the park's new winter management plan likely to be adopted this week says the threat to workers and visitors is too great....
Park service has 90 days to make offer on ranch The Texas School Land Board decided Tuesday to give the National Park Service 90 days to submit an offer to buy the Christmas Mountains Ranch. Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wants to sell the 9,000-acre tract, because the state, he says, cannot adequately conserve the land. The Conservation Fund donated the land to Texas in 1991 with strict restrictions on its use. After weeks of public opposition to Patterson's plans to sell the land to a private bidder, the board decided to allow the National Park Service time to make an offer to add it to Big Bend National Park, about 300 miles southeast of El Paso. "I'm looking forward to meeting with National Park Service officials and interested parties to discuss how we can move forward," Patterson said. Patterson has been adamant that any future owner of the property must allow hunting there. The Park Service prohibits firearms in its parks, but the two private bidders have pledged to allow hunting in the Christmas Mountains.
Mount Rushmore officials sued over free speech, religion rights A Christian law group is accusing Mount Rushmore officials of trampling the free speech and religious rights of a Coon Rapids, Minn., man who alleges he cannot get a permit to distribute religious materials at the national monument. The law firm says Boardley distributed “gospel tracts” at the monument on Aug. 9 without incident but was told the next day he needed a permit. Boardley said he applied for a permit, but he has not received one. Gerard Baker, Mount Rushmore superintendent, said Monday that Boardley has never applied for a permit. “We have never denied a permit,” Baker told The Associated Press. “All he has to do is get a hold of us, and we’ll give him a permit. We issue 70-plus permits a year, and I’m not sure what’s going on.” Boardley has not applied for a permit because Mount Rushmore officials would not give him an application, both when he was at the monument and later when he called and asked for one, Kevin Theriot, ADF senior counsel, said Monday....
Broodmare sold for world-record $10.5 million at Keeneland The Emir of Dubai paid $10.5 million to buy Irish-bred Playful Act at Keeneland's Breeding Stock Sale on Monday, a world record auction price for a broodmare. The bidding was another showdown between two titans of the horse breeding industry, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Darley Stud and Coolmore Stud of Ireland. "When those two teams hook up, neither one of them wants to stop," said John Sikura of Hill 'n' Dale Bloodstock, who consigned the horse for Swettenham Stud of Australia. "It's a test of wills, test of ego. They bought a fantastic mare. Obviously we wish them nothing but the best and hope she'll bring a champion." John Ferguson, the buyer for the sheik, said he was determined to get the horse, in part to honor Swettenham's late owner, Robert Sangster, who always talked her up. "He was a great friend of Sheik Mohammed," Ferguson said of Sangster, who died in April 2004. "That is part of the reason why Sheik Mohammed was so determined to have this particular mare." During Keeneland's 2006 September yearling sale, Darley outlasted Coolmore to pay $11.7 million for a bay colt by Kingmambo, setting a sale record. The two prominent buyers have battled numerous other times at Keeneland and other auctions....
Brazile's triumph at National Finals Steer Roping puts him in pursuit of history Trevor Brazile's emergence from National Finals Steer Roping Saturday night with a second consecutive gold buckle puts him on a path toward what could become ProRodeo's first Triple Crown parlay since Roy Cooper in 1983 -- winning the steer roping, tie-down roping and all-around titles all in one year. One down. Two to go. Brazile earned a record $46,500 at the NFSR in the Lea County Event Center to run away with the steer roping world championship and will have substantial leads in both the tie-down roping and the all-around standings entering the Dec. 6-15 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in his quest to join Cooper in a very elite club. "You always want to repeat as champion," Brazile said, "and I put extra pressure on myself here because the Triple Crown is definitely in the back of my mind. You can't win a Triple Crown if you don't win the first one. This was just the first step. It is not going to be easy."....
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
NEWS ROUNDUP
Wolf that attacked sled dogs had rabies A wolf that was part of a pack that attacked sled dogs in the village of Marshall last week has tested positive for rabies and state officials say unvaccinated dogs that were exposed to the wolves will be euthanized. Also Wednesday, another pack of wolves killed a pet dog in a North Pole subdivision at the edge of Chena Lake and the Chena Lakes Recreation Area. In the Yukon River village of Marshall, the rabies-infected wolf was among those that killed six sled dogs before residents drove them out of town. Residents killed one wolf and possibly injured several others. Tests confirmed the 17-month-old female wolf was positive for the rabies virus. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife veterinarian Kimberlee Beckmen said it is possible other wolves in the pack also have the disease. Several dogs were bitten by wolves during the pack's attack....
The deceit behind global warming No one can deny that in recent years the need to "save the planet" from global warming has become one of the most pervasive issues of our time. As Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, claimed in 2004, it poses "a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism", warning that by the end of this century the only habitable continent left will be Antarctica. The story of how the panic over climate change was pushed to the top of the international agenda falls into five main stages. Stage one came in the 1970s when many scientists expressed alarm over what they saw as a disastrous change in the earth's climate. Their fear was not of warming but global cooling, of "a new Ice Age". For three decades, after a sharp rise in the interwar years up to 1940, global temperatures had been falling. The one thing certain about climate is that it is always changing. Since we began to emerge from the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago, temperatures have been through significant swings several times. The hottest period occurred around 8,000 years ago and was followed by a long cooling. Then came what is known as the "Roman Warming", coinciding with the Roman empire. Three centuries of cooling in the Dark Ages were followed by the "Mediaeval Warming", when the evidence agrees the world was hotter than today....
Gore: Don't give equal time Last week, climate scientist John Christy wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal taking issue with Vice President Al Gore's assertions about global warming. Gore took the opportunity of a television appearance on Monday to address Christy's claims. NBC's Meredith Viera asked Gore, "You know, you share the prize with scientists from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And one of those scientists, John Christy, wrote an op-ed last Thursday in the Wall Street Journal in which he criticized your dire predictions about the impact of global warming. He wrote, 'I see neither the developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that human activity is to blame for most of the warming we see.'" Gore immediately responded, "Well, he's an outlier. He no longer belongs to the IPCC. And he is way outside the scientific consensus." Gore then attacked the news media directly, saying that "part of the challenge the news media has had in covering this story is the old habit of taking the 'on the one hand, on the other hand' approach. There are still people who believe that the earth is flat. But when you're reporting on a story like the one you're covering today, where you have people all around the world, you don't search out for someone who still believes the earth is flat and give them equal time."....
US must meet global warming challenge: Clinton Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton Monday pledged to slash US greenhouse gas emissions, as she aimed to bounce back from her most difficult week yet on the campaign trail. Clinton's comprehensive plan to tackle global warming represented the latest sign that environmental issues are playing a greater role in the 2008 White House race, than in any previous US election. The Clinton plan uses a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, in a bid to head off the most damaging results of global warming. It also sets a target of reducing foreign oil imports to the gas guzzling United States by two-thirds from levels projected to be reached in 2030 -- a cut of 10 million barrels per day. The plan is also designed to kick-start research and development on clean and energy efficient technology and to cut energy consumption in the home. Clinton would also increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon over the next 23 years, and help US car manufacturing giants retool production plants with 20 billion dollars in "green vehicle bonds."....
Ritter takes aim at greenhouse gases Coloradans will have to drive cleaner cars, use less electricity and recycle more in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels in the next 13 years, under a climate action plan unveiled Monday by Gov. Bill Ritter. The goal means C02 emissions would reach just 92.9 million metric tons by 2020, down 37 percent from what would be produced if the state did nothing, according to the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. Ritter's plan calls for dramatically reducing electricity use, slashing the miles commuters drive to work each year, beefing up energy codes for new buildings and requiring that large emitters of CO2, begin phased-in mandatory reporting of their emissions. His plan stops short of mandating tough clean-air standards for cars, but it does direct the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission to begin examining use of such standards....
Ohio Cities Buying Up Foreclosed Homes For $1 Each Under a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program, cities in Ohio may buy unsold foreclosed homes for $1 each. Through the program, any foreclosed home that HUD has unsuccessfully listed for sale for longer than six months is available for city purchase. The city of Tallmadge, in suburban Akron, is hoping to buyat least one house as part of their efforts against the rising tide of abandoned homes in the city. HUD advertises the Dollar Homes program as a way for communities to repair empty houses and resell them to help revitalize neighborhoods, but Tallmadge has a different plan. City officials say they likely will tear down the house, sell the land and put the sale proceeds into the city's historic preservation programs.
Hearing underway on rules for oil, gas pits Mark Fesmire remembers when, as a young engineer readying a new oil well for production in southeastern New Mexico, he was told by his boss to get rid of a pit full of salty waste water by ripping the liner and letting the stuff soak into the ground. While it broke no rules, "That's haunted me ever since," Fesmire said. "That was wrong." Two decades later, the state Oil Conservation Division that Fesmire heads is proposing a new, tougher rule for oil and gas pits that has drawn vehement objections from the industry. A hearing that could last into next week resumed Monday before the Oil Conservation Commission, which has the final say. Environmental groups and some ranchers and city officials contend that contamination including carcinogens and heavy metals from unlined or poorly lined pits threatens water quality and the health of New Mexico's people, livestock and wildlife....
Ranchers rush to secure conservation easements Changes in state and federal tax laws have made donating land for conservation purposes more attractive to ranchers like Jay Fetcher. Over the last 13 years, Fetcher has placed the bulk of his 2,000-acre ranch near Steamboat Springs into conservation easements, designed to protect it from development. The benefits he has reaped have changed with the tax laws. o the state of Colorado. A lot of what we did in 1994 had an impact on tax laws." When Fetcher made his first donation of 1,350 acres in 1994, he was able to take about $50,000 in deductions over six years. The donation was worth about $1.2 million for tax purposes. By 2005, when he made his second donation of 217 acres valued at about $1 million, Colorado had implemented a program that allowed ranchers to sell tax credits earned from donating a conservation easement. Fetcher was able to claim the proceeds from the sale of $200,000 in credits as ordinary income, helping him recoup a total of $300,000. Last year, the federal tax laws were revised, increasing the charitable deduction from 30 percent of adjusted gross income to 50 percent. It also allows farmers to deduct up to 100 percent of their AGI and increased the number of years over which a donor can take deductions from six to 16 years....
Ranchers, land trusts rush to beat deadline Land trusts in Wyoming are racing the clock to wrap up conservation easements before the end of the year, when attractive tax benefits are slated to expire. The land trusts and their client farmers and ranchers are hoping, but not counting on Congress to pass legislation that would extend those tax benefits beyond Dec. 31. The Teton Regional Land Trust, which operates in both Idaho and Wyoming, has three times as many projects as normal for this time of year. "We're turning away projects and bidding out some baseline evaluation work that we normally do in house," said Michael Winfield, executive director. Glen Pauley, of the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust, said he too is busy with late efforts to create conservation easements....
Black-footed ferrets are saved from extinction, but where will they live? In late October, biologists in Arizona’s Aubrey Valley spent five nights in a row trapping and tagging black-footed ferrets, considered “the most endangered mammals in the United States.” They found 29, which means that there are probably about 70 ferrets altogether in this reintroduction area south of the Grand Canyon. According to Jeff Pebworth, wildlife program manager with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Aubrey Valley site is “coming on strong” because “now we’re at the stage where the ferrets are reproducing in the wild.” An estimated 1,000 black-footed ferrets live in the wild, all descendants of 18 animals captured in Wyoming in the late 1980s. The 20-year, $30 million project to bring the animal back from extinction is a success, but ironically, the recovered species may now have no place to live, says Mike Lockhart, national black-footed ferret recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ferrets depend completely on prairie dogs for both food and shelter. One ferret can eat about 110 prairie dogs in a year. They hunt at night, moving in a series of galloping jumps from one prairie dog burrow to the next, killing their sleeping prey with a bite to the back of the neck or throat. The ferrets then adopt the burrows as their own, spending about 90 percent of their time underground....
New Montana board to look at livestock losses from wolves Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is assembling a new board to help deal with livestock loss. The Livestock Loss and Mitigation Board was created during this year's legislative session and Gov. Schweitzer says the board's mission is to help ranchers when they lose livestock to wolf attacks. "This board will be the board that runs the, the mitigation process in reimbursing these folks when they have losses." The board is made up of three members from the Board of Livestock, three members from the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Commission and a public member. That public member is a student at the Montana State University in Bozeman involved in several livestock organizations. Gov. Schweitzer adds that the board will create a process so that ranchers can be reimbursed following a wolf attack.
Forest will revise cattle grazing plan Following an appeal by seven conservation groups, the Stanislaus National Forest must revise a 10-year cattle grazing plan it released nearly four months ago. The plan covers about 70,000 high-country acres on the forest's Summit and Calaveras ranger districts. Environmentalists hailed the appeal decision as a victory, while forest employees downplayed the ruling by the forest's regional office in Vallejo. "It's more of going back and re-documenting, re-looking at it," Susan Forbes, the forest's range management specialist, said of the grazing plan. Environmentalists complain that the original plan, approved in July by Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn, allow cattle to graze at current levels with only minimal changes. Their appeal, filed in early September, said the Forest Service failed to evaluate effects that grazing has on water quality and wildlife and that the agency didn't consider sufficient alternatives....
Misguided litigation magnifies wildfires The massive toll catastrophic wildfire exacts on human lives and property is well documented. Since Oct. 20, the ongoing Southern California fires have scorched nearly 500,000 acres - roughly three-fourths the size of Rhode Island, prompted the largest evacuation since the Civil War, caused 12 deaths and injured hundreds, all at a cost yet to be determined, but some think will top $2 billion. And there are other consequences as well, including endangered wildlife dead, watersheds dramatically damaged by ash and erosion, and native plants wiped out. But the underlying causes of these monster fires aren't as well understood. Why do they keep happening at such intensity? One reason is that for years, groups that literally make a living by obstructing government efforts to manage forests have filed myriad lawsuits intended to delay, stall or stop anything resembling science. They seek to prevent the federal government from implementing balanced efforts to manage the land, including efforts to thin forests and brushland to help prevent catastrophic wildfire. Just last year in Southern California, an environmental advocacy organization filed a lawsuit against reasonable forest management impacting more than 3.5 million acres in four National Forests. Interestingly, more than 100,000 of these same acres have now burned in the past few days in three of these forests - Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland. But the lawsuit proceeds....
The fates of salmon and hydroelectric production lie in the hands of a federal judge The struggle over saving Columbia River salmon could reach a climax in 2008. A federal judge has rejected the past two plans to manage dams and salmon — saying they didn't do enough to save the endangered fish. If he doesn't like this one, he has warned that the region and its hydroelectric power system could face "serious consequences." Last week, the Bush administration presented new drafts of how it hopes to manage Columbia-Snake river dams and salmon. This time, officials offered more guarantees: • Hatcheries will be fixed. • Water will be provided by Idaho farmers. • Habitat will be restored. • Congress and federal power customers will pay for it all. But the plans stopped short of the actions that fisheries biologists say may be necessary for putting the Snake River's four salmon and steelhead runs on the road to recovery. Most notably — but least surprising — the Bush plan would not breach four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington....
Plan manages Colorado River in drought The Law of the River has gotten another adjustment with a federal plan to manage the Colorado River during dry years. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Friday released a final environmental impact study that could be a way to avoid renegotiating an 85-year-old agreement based on inflated notions of how much water really is in the river. Or, according to river advocates, the plan that will govern use and allocation through 2026 could be a way to ensure none of the seven Western states that share the river ever has enough water. The study's conclusions drew from a consensus decision by the seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River on what to do during low-water years, officials said. "This is an arrangement for operating the river where everyone shares the pain when you're going through a drought time," said Tom Ryan, a Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist in Salt Lake City. The Bureau of Reclamation began the environmental study in 1999. Since then, the river basin has experienced the worst drought in 100 years of recorded history, and its two largest reservoirs - Lake Powell and Lake Mead - have gone from being nearly full to just over half-full. The report, expected to be final in December, plans how the upper basin states - Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico - will respond to demand from California, Arizona and Nevada, the lower basin states, which have more people and older water rights....
How Will You Ride and Feed Your Horses in 2030?
In 2007 for the first time in human history, the bulk of the world’s population was expected to live in urban centers in greater numbers than in rural areas. The world’s urban population is expected to rise from 3 billion in 2003, to 5 billion by 2030, and the rural population will decline from 3.3 billion to 3.2 billion during that time, according to the U.N.’s Population Division report World Urbanization Prospects: the 2003 Revision. According to the report, this “historic demographic shift” makes man a predominantly urban species for the first time in our history. And, these new population and demographic shifts among mankind have reached the equestrian industry. For horse and land lovers, concerns for the availability of land for agricultural, recreational, and food-growing purposes are growing by the day. In fact, land loss is encroaching on the very basic need of horses and their owners – where to ride and where to grow grain and hay to feed the horses. Due to decreasing availability of hay, protecting and maintaining the land on which our beloved animals so dearly depend has become a new priority for the equestrian community....
Confusion reigns over US plans to test Canadian meat at border Canada dispatched one of its top food inspection officials to Washington Monday as confusion reigned over new "additional import requirements" for Canadian meat and poultry exports heading across the U.S. border. Bill Anderson, meat program director at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, will attempt to negotiate with the Americans on new rules announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the weekend to track three pathogens in Canadian chicken, beef and pork. Although the increased testing for salmonella, listeria monocytogenes and E. coli 0157:H7 had not started Monday, the lack of clarity quickly caused confusion and frustration in the multibillion-dollar meat processing industry. "The government is disappointed with the USDA decision to take these actions," said Frederique Moulin, who works with Anderson at the CFIA in Ottawa as national manager of international programs. Moulin said the U.S. is suggesting that the extra testing will start this week. "It's going to create disruption for sure, but we hope the disruption will be at a minimum," she said. U.S. officials are also expected to arrive in Canada later this week to begin an audit of the Canadian food safety system, with a focus on Rancher's but also to include other meat processing plants. The Ottawa-based Canadian Meat Council said Monday that many unknowns remained over the heightened Canadian requirements in an industry that requires a high level of planning and scheduling....
Canada wants U.S. to reconsider extra meat tests Canadian food safety officials want the U.S. Agriculture Department to reconsider plans to step up testing and inspection of Canadian meat this week, a senior Canadian Food Inspection Agency official said on Monday. "We expect the interim measure will be reconsidered," said Frederique Moulin, manager of international meat programs with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Moulin said Canada was respected around the world for its meat inspection system and that Canadian meat was safe. Officials from the USDA and CFIA were discussing the tests, she said, which the USDA had planned to start on Monday. "The measures that they (USDA officials) were supposed to put on this morning -- the hold and test of the (meat) products imported from Canada -- this was postponed," Moulin said, adding talks between the two countries continued. A USDA spokesman said the plan to test Canadian meat had not been delayed....
No Early Hearing for R-CALF A South Dakota judge has turned down a request for an expedited hearing schedule to try and get an injunction on USDA Rule 2. R-CALF filed the complaint earlier this week. It opposes the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plan to allow the import of older Canadian cattle, staring on November 19th. Rule 2 would permit the movement of cattle born after March 1st, 1999 across the border. The current age restriction is 30 months. R-CALF claims Rule 2 increases the risk of infection of the U.S. cattle herd with BSE. A Canadian Cattlemen's Association spokesman is concerned there may be some legal techniques where R-CALF could potentially still get an injunction. John Masswohl says they're following up to rebuff R-CALF's arguments. He adds R-CALF may have made a tactical mistake by waiting so long to go to court.
It's All Trew: Old West fires often impossible to tame The first structures on the frontier were dugouts built into a hill or creek bank. Some buildings in the first settlements were built of rock, if available, close by. Later, most structures, both homes and commercial buildings, were constructed of raw, fresh-sawed lumber and were heated by wood-burning stoves. This combination, aided by rusted stove pipes, carelessness and poor attendance of stoves caused many fires. In fact, almost every town or country school in the old west burned or partially burned at least once during its history. Long before volunteer fire departments of today came the fire brigades whose volunteers rose to the occasion using whatever means and equipment at hand. They were faithful and tried hard, but the results were usually disastrous. The Great American West has always been short on water and simple means were about all that could be devised to assist in combating a fire. For example, water storage in the form of wooden whiskey or vinegar barrels were set all about town being placed under the gutter spouts and roof overhangs to catch water from the dews and occasional rain showers. If no moisture came, the merchants or homeowners tried to keep the containers full with water drawn from the nearest water well. Some towns even hired a man with a tank wagon to keep the barrels full of water....
Wolf that attacked sled dogs had rabies A wolf that was part of a pack that attacked sled dogs in the village of Marshall last week has tested positive for rabies and state officials say unvaccinated dogs that were exposed to the wolves will be euthanized. Also Wednesday, another pack of wolves killed a pet dog in a North Pole subdivision at the edge of Chena Lake and the Chena Lakes Recreation Area. In the Yukon River village of Marshall, the rabies-infected wolf was among those that killed six sled dogs before residents drove them out of town. Residents killed one wolf and possibly injured several others. Tests confirmed the 17-month-old female wolf was positive for the rabies virus. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Wildlife veterinarian Kimberlee Beckmen said it is possible other wolves in the pack also have the disease. Several dogs were bitten by wolves during the pack's attack....
The deceit behind global warming No one can deny that in recent years the need to "save the planet" from global warming has become one of the most pervasive issues of our time. As Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, claimed in 2004, it poses "a far greater threat to the world than international terrorism", warning that by the end of this century the only habitable continent left will be Antarctica. The story of how the panic over climate change was pushed to the top of the international agenda falls into five main stages. Stage one came in the 1970s when many scientists expressed alarm over what they saw as a disastrous change in the earth's climate. Their fear was not of warming but global cooling, of "a new Ice Age". For three decades, after a sharp rise in the interwar years up to 1940, global temperatures had been falling. The one thing certain about climate is that it is always changing. Since we began to emerge from the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago, temperatures have been through significant swings several times. The hottest period occurred around 8,000 years ago and was followed by a long cooling. Then came what is known as the "Roman Warming", coinciding with the Roman empire. Three centuries of cooling in the Dark Ages were followed by the "Mediaeval Warming", when the evidence agrees the world was hotter than today....
Gore: Don't give equal time Last week, climate scientist John Christy wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal taking issue with Vice President Al Gore's assertions about global warming. Gore took the opportunity of a television appearance on Monday to address Christy's claims. NBC's Meredith Viera asked Gore, "You know, you share the prize with scientists from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And one of those scientists, John Christy, wrote an op-ed last Thursday in the Wall Street Journal in which he criticized your dire predictions about the impact of global warming. He wrote, 'I see neither the developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that human activity is to blame for most of the warming we see.'" Gore immediately responded, "Well, he's an outlier. He no longer belongs to the IPCC. And he is way outside the scientific consensus." Gore then attacked the news media directly, saying that "part of the challenge the news media has had in covering this story is the old habit of taking the 'on the one hand, on the other hand' approach. There are still people who believe that the earth is flat. But when you're reporting on a story like the one you're covering today, where you have people all around the world, you don't search out for someone who still believes the earth is flat and give them equal time."....
US must meet global warming challenge: Clinton Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton Monday pledged to slash US greenhouse gas emissions, as she aimed to bounce back from her most difficult week yet on the campaign trail. Clinton's comprehensive plan to tackle global warming represented the latest sign that environmental issues are playing a greater role in the 2008 White House race, than in any previous US election. The Clinton plan uses a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, in a bid to head off the most damaging results of global warming. It also sets a target of reducing foreign oil imports to the gas guzzling United States by two-thirds from levels projected to be reached in 2030 -- a cut of 10 million barrels per day. The plan is also designed to kick-start research and development on clean and energy efficient technology and to cut energy consumption in the home. Clinton would also increase fuel efficiency standards to 55 miles per gallon over the next 23 years, and help US car manufacturing giants retool production plants with 20 billion dollars in "green vehicle bonds."....
Ritter takes aim at greenhouse gases Coloradans will have to drive cleaner cars, use less electricity and recycle more in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels in the next 13 years, under a climate action plan unveiled Monday by Gov. Bill Ritter. The goal means C02 emissions would reach just 92.9 million metric tons by 2020, down 37 percent from what would be produced if the state did nothing, according to the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. Ritter's plan calls for dramatically reducing electricity use, slashing the miles commuters drive to work each year, beefing up energy codes for new buildings and requiring that large emitters of CO2, begin phased-in mandatory reporting of their emissions. His plan stops short of mandating tough clean-air standards for cars, but it does direct the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission to begin examining use of such standards....
Ohio Cities Buying Up Foreclosed Homes For $1 Each Under a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program, cities in Ohio may buy unsold foreclosed homes for $1 each. Through the program, any foreclosed home that HUD has unsuccessfully listed for sale for longer than six months is available for city purchase. The city of Tallmadge, in suburban Akron, is hoping to buyat least one house as part of their efforts against the rising tide of abandoned homes in the city. HUD advertises the Dollar Homes program as a way for communities to repair empty houses and resell them to help revitalize neighborhoods, but Tallmadge has a different plan. City officials say they likely will tear down the house, sell the land and put the sale proceeds into the city's historic preservation programs.
Hearing underway on rules for oil, gas pits Mark Fesmire remembers when, as a young engineer readying a new oil well for production in southeastern New Mexico, he was told by his boss to get rid of a pit full of salty waste water by ripping the liner and letting the stuff soak into the ground. While it broke no rules, "That's haunted me ever since," Fesmire said. "That was wrong." Two decades later, the state Oil Conservation Division that Fesmire heads is proposing a new, tougher rule for oil and gas pits that has drawn vehement objections from the industry. A hearing that could last into next week resumed Monday before the Oil Conservation Commission, which has the final say. Environmental groups and some ranchers and city officials contend that contamination including carcinogens and heavy metals from unlined or poorly lined pits threatens water quality and the health of New Mexico's people, livestock and wildlife....
Ranchers rush to secure conservation easements Changes in state and federal tax laws have made donating land for conservation purposes more attractive to ranchers like Jay Fetcher. Over the last 13 years, Fetcher has placed the bulk of his 2,000-acre ranch near Steamboat Springs into conservation easements, designed to protect it from development. The benefits he has reaped have changed with the tax laws. o the state of Colorado. A lot of what we did in 1994 had an impact on tax laws." When Fetcher made his first donation of 1,350 acres in 1994, he was able to take about $50,000 in deductions over six years. The donation was worth about $1.2 million for tax purposes. By 2005, when he made his second donation of 217 acres valued at about $1 million, Colorado had implemented a program that allowed ranchers to sell tax credits earned from donating a conservation easement. Fetcher was able to claim the proceeds from the sale of $200,000 in credits as ordinary income, helping him recoup a total of $300,000. Last year, the federal tax laws were revised, increasing the charitable deduction from 30 percent of adjusted gross income to 50 percent. It also allows farmers to deduct up to 100 percent of their AGI and increased the number of years over which a donor can take deductions from six to 16 years....
Ranchers, land trusts rush to beat deadline Land trusts in Wyoming are racing the clock to wrap up conservation easements before the end of the year, when attractive tax benefits are slated to expire. The land trusts and their client farmers and ranchers are hoping, but not counting on Congress to pass legislation that would extend those tax benefits beyond Dec. 31. The Teton Regional Land Trust, which operates in both Idaho and Wyoming, has three times as many projects as normal for this time of year. "We're turning away projects and bidding out some baseline evaluation work that we normally do in house," said Michael Winfield, executive director. Glen Pauley, of the Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust, said he too is busy with late efforts to create conservation easements....
Black-footed ferrets are saved from extinction, but where will they live? In late October, biologists in Arizona’s Aubrey Valley spent five nights in a row trapping and tagging black-footed ferrets, considered “the most endangered mammals in the United States.” They found 29, which means that there are probably about 70 ferrets altogether in this reintroduction area south of the Grand Canyon. According to Jeff Pebworth, wildlife program manager with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Aubrey Valley site is “coming on strong” because “now we’re at the stage where the ferrets are reproducing in the wild.” An estimated 1,000 black-footed ferrets live in the wild, all descendants of 18 animals captured in Wyoming in the late 1980s. The 20-year, $30 million project to bring the animal back from extinction is a success, but ironically, the recovered species may now have no place to live, says Mike Lockhart, national black-footed ferret recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The ferrets depend completely on prairie dogs for both food and shelter. One ferret can eat about 110 prairie dogs in a year. They hunt at night, moving in a series of galloping jumps from one prairie dog burrow to the next, killing their sleeping prey with a bite to the back of the neck or throat. The ferrets then adopt the burrows as their own, spending about 90 percent of their time underground....
New Montana board to look at livestock losses from wolves Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is assembling a new board to help deal with livestock loss. The Livestock Loss and Mitigation Board was created during this year's legislative session and Gov. Schweitzer says the board's mission is to help ranchers when they lose livestock to wolf attacks. "This board will be the board that runs the, the mitigation process in reimbursing these folks when they have losses." The board is made up of three members from the Board of Livestock, three members from the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Commission and a public member. That public member is a student at the Montana State University in Bozeman involved in several livestock organizations. Gov. Schweitzer adds that the board will create a process so that ranchers can be reimbursed following a wolf attack.
Forest will revise cattle grazing plan Following an appeal by seven conservation groups, the Stanislaus National Forest must revise a 10-year cattle grazing plan it released nearly four months ago. The plan covers about 70,000 high-country acres on the forest's Summit and Calaveras ranger districts. Environmentalists hailed the appeal decision as a victory, while forest employees downplayed the ruling by the forest's regional office in Vallejo. "It's more of going back and re-documenting, re-looking at it," Susan Forbes, the forest's range management specialist, said of the grazing plan. Environmentalists complain that the original plan, approved in July by Forest Supervisor Tom Quinn, allow cattle to graze at current levels with only minimal changes. Their appeal, filed in early September, said the Forest Service failed to evaluate effects that grazing has on water quality and wildlife and that the agency didn't consider sufficient alternatives....
Misguided litigation magnifies wildfires The massive toll catastrophic wildfire exacts on human lives and property is well documented. Since Oct. 20, the ongoing Southern California fires have scorched nearly 500,000 acres - roughly three-fourths the size of Rhode Island, prompted the largest evacuation since the Civil War, caused 12 deaths and injured hundreds, all at a cost yet to be determined, but some think will top $2 billion. And there are other consequences as well, including endangered wildlife dead, watersheds dramatically damaged by ash and erosion, and native plants wiped out. But the underlying causes of these monster fires aren't as well understood. Why do they keep happening at such intensity? One reason is that for years, groups that literally make a living by obstructing government efforts to manage forests have filed myriad lawsuits intended to delay, stall or stop anything resembling science. They seek to prevent the federal government from implementing balanced efforts to manage the land, including efforts to thin forests and brushland to help prevent catastrophic wildfire. Just last year in Southern California, an environmental advocacy organization filed a lawsuit against reasonable forest management impacting more than 3.5 million acres in four National Forests. Interestingly, more than 100,000 of these same acres have now burned in the past few days in three of these forests - Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland. But the lawsuit proceeds....
The fates of salmon and hydroelectric production lie in the hands of a federal judge The struggle over saving Columbia River salmon could reach a climax in 2008. A federal judge has rejected the past two plans to manage dams and salmon — saying they didn't do enough to save the endangered fish. If he doesn't like this one, he has warned that the region and its hydroelectric power system could face "serious consequences." Last week, the Bush administration presented new drafts of how it hopes to manage Columbia-Snake river dams and salmon. This time, officials offered more guarantees: • Hatcheries will be fixed. • Water will be provided by Idaho farmers. • Habitat will be restored. • Congress and federal power customers will pay for it all. But the plans stopped short of the actions that fisheries biologists say may be necessary for putting the Snake River's four salmon and steelhead runs on the road to recovery. Most notably — but least surprising — the Bush plan would not breach four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington....
Plan manages Colorado River in drought The Law of the River has gotten another adjustment with a federal plan to manage the Colorado River during dry years. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Friday released a final environmental impact study that could be a way to avoid renegotiating an 85-year-old agreement based on inflated notions of how much water really is in the river. Or, according to river advocates, the plan that will govern use and allocation through 2026 could be a way to ensure none of the seven Western states that share the river ever has enough water. The study's conclusions drew from a consensus decision by the seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River on what to do during low-water years, officials said. "This is an arrangement for operating the river where everyone shares the pain when you're going through a drought time," said Tom Ryan, a Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist in Salt Lake City. The Bureau of Reclamation began the environmental study in 1999. Since then, the river basin has experienced the worst drought in 100 years of recorded history, and its two largest reservoirs - Lake Powell and Lake Mead - have gone from being nearly full to just over half-full. The report, expected to be final in December, plans how the upper basin states - Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico - will respond to demand from California, Arizona and Nevada, the lower basin states, which have more people and older water rights....
How Will You Ride and Feed Your Horses in 2030?
In 2007 for the first time in human history, the bulk of the world’s population was expected to live in urban centers in greater numbers than in rural areas. The world’s urban population is expected to rise from 3 billion in 2003, to 5 billion by 2030, and the rural population will decline from 3.3 billion to 3.2 billion during that time, according to the U.N.’s Population Division report World Urbanization Prospects: the 2003 Revision. According to the report, this “historic demographic shift” makes man a predominantly urban species for the first time in our history. And, these new population and demographic shifts among mankind have reached the equestrian industry. For horse and land lovers, concerns for the availability of land for agricultural, recreational, and food-growing purposes are growing by the day. In fact, land loss is encroaching on the very basic need of horses and their owners – where to ride and where to grow grain and hay to feed the horses. Due to decreasing availability of hay, protecting and maintaining the land on which our beloved animals so dearly depend has become a new priority for the equestrian community....
Confusion reigns over US plans to test Canadian meat at border Canada dispatched one of its top food inspection officials to Washington Monday as confusion reigned over new "additional import requirements" for Canadian meat and poultry exports heading across the U.S. border. Bill Anderson, meat program director at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, will attempt to negotiate with the Americans on new rules announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the weekend to track three pathogens in Canadian chicken, beef and pork. Although the increased testing for salmonella, listeria monocytogenes and E. coli 0157:H7 had not started Monday, the lack of clarity quickly caused confusion and frustration in the multibillion-dollar meat processing industry. "The government is disappointed with the USDA decision to take these actions," said Frederique Moulin, who works with Anderson at the CFIA in Ottawa as national manager of international programs. Moulin said the U.S. is suggesting that the extra testing will start this week. "It's going to create disruption for sure, but we hope the disruption will be at a minimum," she said. U.S. officials are also expected to arrive in Canada later this week to begin an audit of the Canadian food safety system, with a focus on Rancher's but also to include other meat processing plants. The Ottawa-based Canadian Meat Council said Monday that many unknowns remained over the heightened Canadian requirements in an industry that requires a high level of planning and scheduling....
Canada wants U.S. to reconsider extra meat tests Canadian food safety officials want the U.S. Agriculture Department to reconsider plans to step up testing and inspection of Canadian meat this week, a senior Canadian Food Inspection Agency official said on Monday. "We expect the interim measure will be reconsidered," said Frederique Moulin, manager of international meat programs with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Moulin said Canada was respected around the world for its meat inspection system and that Canadian meat was safe. Officials from the USDA and CFIA were discussing the tests, she said, which the USDA had planned to start on Monday. "The measures that they (USDA officials) were supposed to put on this morning -- the hold and test of the (meat) products imported from Canada -- this was postponed," Moulin said, adding talks between the two countries continued. A USDA spokesman said the plan to test Canadian meat had not been delayed....
No Early Hearing for R-CALF A South Dakota judge has turned down a request for an expedited hearing schedule to try and get an injunction on USDA Rule 2. R-CALF filed the complaint earlier this week. It opposes the U.S. Department of Agriculture's plan to allow the import of older Canadian cattle, staring on November 19th. Rule 2 would permit the movement of cattle born after March 1st, 1999 across the border. The current age restriction is 30 months. R-CALF claims Rule 2 increases the risk of infection of the U.S. cattle herd with BSE. A Canadian Cattlemen's Association spokesman is concerned there may be some legal techniques where R-CALF could potentially still get an injunction. John Masswohl says they're following up to rebuff R-CALF's arguments. He adds R-CALF may have made a tactical mistake by waiting so long to go to court.
It's All Trew: Old West fires often impossible to tame The first structures on the frontier were dugouts built into a hill or creek bank. Some buildings in the first settlements were built of rock, if available, close by. Later, most structures, both homes and commercial buildings, were constructed of raw, fresh-sawed lumber and were heated by wood-burning stoves. This combination, aided by rusted stove pipes, carelessness and poor attendance of stoves caused many fires. In fact, almost every town or country school in the old west burned or partially burned at least once during its history. Long before volunteer fire departments of today came the fire brigades whose volunteers rose to the occasion using whatever means and equipment at hand. They were faithful and tried hard, but the results were usually disastrous. The Great American West has always been short on water and simple means were about all that could be devised to assist in combating a fire. For example, water storage in the form of wooden whiskey or vinegar barrels were set all about town being placed under the gutter spouts and roof overhangs to catch water from the dews and occasional rain showers. If no moisture came, the merchants or homeowners tried to keep the containers full with water drawn from the nearest water well. Some towns even hired a man with a tank wagon to keep the barrels full of water....
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